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Caribbean mo­bile provider Dig­i­cel yes­ter­day agreed to al­low its cus­tomers to ac­cess pop­u­lar "free calls" ap­pli­ca­tions Viber, Tan­go and Nim­buzz once again af­ter the Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions Au­thor­i­ty of T&T (TATT) start­ed an in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to com­plaints made about Dig­i­cel's ac­tion.

In a re­lease yes­ter­day, Dig­i­cel said it made the de­ci­sion af­ter TATT con­firmed it would in­ves­ti­gate the com­pa­ny's own com­plaint about the use of num­ber-based VoIP ap­pli­ca­tions in the coun­try.

It added: "Dig­i­cel has been en­gaged by the au­thor­i­ty and has sought to re­lay its con­cerns re­lat­ing to the use of these ap­pli­ca­tions and the at­ten­dant im­pact they have on con­sumers in T&T.

"Dig­i­cel shall con­tin­ue to en­gage with the au­thor­i­ty and very much wel­comes the op­por­tu­ni­ty that has been pro­vid­ed to com­mu­ni­cate its po­si­tion and con­cerns."

Point­ing out that TATT had asked that Dig­i­cel con­tin­ue to pro­vide the VoIP prod­ucts to its cus­tomers while the in­ves­ti­ga­tion was go­ing on, the com­pa­ny said:

"Dig­i­cel is will­ing, in light of the au­thor­i­ty's com­mit­ment to care­ful­ly re­view these mat­ters in con­sul­ta­tion with the in­dus­try, to ac­cede, ef­fec­tive Ju­ly 9, to the au­thor­i­ty's re­quest in the in­ter­im pe­ri­od whilst pre­serv­ing its rights in re­la­tion to the mat­ter gen­er­al­ly."

In its own re­lease yes­ter­day, TATT con­firmed it had start­ed an in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to com­plaints re­lat­ed to the al­leged block­ing of VoIP ap­pli­ca­tions by Dig­i­cel.

"At this time, the au­thor­i­ty has en­gaged Dig­i­cel and ac­knowl­edges the con­struc­tive man­ner of Dig­i­cel's re­sponse to date.

"Whilst the in­ves­tiga­tive process is on­go­ing, the au­thor­i­ty will dis­cuss the fun­da­men­tal is­sues re­lat­ing to the use of num­ber-based VoIP ap­pli­ca­tions. These is­sues cer­tain­ly re­quire fur­ther in­ves­ti­ga­tion and de­tailed con­sid­er­a­tion on the part of the au­thor­i­ty."

It added that it had asked Dig­i­cel to re­con­sid­er its de­ci­sion to block the ser­vice be­cause it be­lieved all con­sumers should be treat­ed equal­ly in the in­ter­im.

"Whilst the au­thor­i­ty has made no de­ter­mi­na­tion or de­ci­sion in the mat­ter, we be­lieve that the main­te­nance of the pro­vi­sion of these ser­vices in the in­ter­im pe­ri­od would be in the best in­ter­est of all stake­hold­ers and will al­low the au­thor­i­ty time to en­gage in this process in a calm and con­struc­tive man­ner," it said.

Dig­i­cel had barred cus­tomers' ac­cess to the ser­vices over the week­end, say­ing "un­li­censed VoIP op­er­a­tors, like Viber and Nim­buzz, use tele­coms net­works to de­liv­er their ser­vices but they do not pay any mon­ey for the priv­i­lege.

"This unau­tho­rised ac­tiv­i­ty puts enor­mous pres­sures on band­width, which means cus­tomers' da­ta us­age ex­pe­ri­ence is neg­a­tive­ly im­pact­ed as a re­sult.

"As such, Dig­i­cel has been forced to take firm ac­tion to pre­vent this par­a­sitic ac­tiv­i­ty," Dig­i­cel's com­mu­ni­ca­tion man­ag­er Pen­ny Gomez had told the Sun­day Guardian.

She said while Dig­i­cel "in­vest­ed mil­lions in its net­work and busi­ness," un­li­censed VoIP reaped the ben­e­fits with no cap­i­tal in­vest­ment.

"The sit­u­a­tion is un­ten­able on a medi­um-to-long-term ba­sis and so we are tak­ing a stand," she added.