The High Court last night overturned the decision to award the third national mobile phone licence to Meteor Communications and sent the matter back to the Office of the Director of Telecommunications Regulation to be reconsidered. Ms Justice Macken upheld a challenge by Orange Communications to the regulator's decision last October to award the licence to Meteor. She found the decision of the regulator, Ms Etain Doyle, was objectively biased and unreasonable.
In a 245-page judgment, which took almost six hours to deliver, the judge also ruled that the regulator's failure to give Orange adequate reasons for her decision to refuse the licence to the company was wrong in law.
The bulk of the costs, including reserved costs, of the 50 day High Court challenge by Orange, which began last March, estimated at £3 million (€3.8 million), were awarded to Orange against the regulator and Meteor.
The legal proceedings are understood to have cost Meteor, which employs 78 people at its Citywest headquarters in Dublin, some £10 million. Ms Justice Macken put a stay on her order for costs in the event of an appeal.
Mr Gerard Hogan SC, for the regulator, gave an undertaking that the licence would not be awarded to Meteor pending an appeal and full reconsideration of the matter.
In a statement issued afterwards by the Office of the Director of Telecommunications Regulation, Ms Doyle, the regulator said she was very surprised and disappointed by the judgment and intended to lodge an appeal.
The statement continued: "We stand by everything we have done and the integrity of our team. The key objective of the office remains the further liberalisation of telecommunications services in Ireland to the benefit of the consumer and this work will continue."
Mr Peter Quinn, chief operations officer with Meteor Mobile Communications, expressed deep disappointment with the court's decision.
Mr Quinn said they intended to take some time to study the judgment in detail and to consult with their legal advisers before deciding on their next course of action.
An appeal to the Supreme Court was an option and a decision would be made in the next few days, Mr Quinn added.
In the action, Orange Communications asked the judge to carry out a "revaluation" of the decision of the Office Director of Telecommunications Regulation not to grant it a mobile phone operating licence.
Orange submitted that when it asked for a reason for the regulator's decision, the only one it got was that Meteor Mobile Communications "had beaten them".
The substance of the decision, it was argued on behalf of Orange, was that Meteor had performed better in competition for the licence than Orange, which was ranked second, and that that was why it was refused the licence.
Orange , with registered offices at Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin, brought the proceedings against the regulator, Ms Doyle, and Meteor, with an address at Citywest, Naas Road, Dublin. Meteor is 60 per cent-owned by the US mobile phone operator, Western Wireless, 30 per cent by the Irish firm, RF Communications and 10 per cent by the Seattle-based consultancy, the Walter Group.
Orange, which was given the decision in June 1998, claimed that, in that month, it was told for the first time of the "exact weighting" used by the Office of the Director of Telecommunications Regulation in evaluating the applications of the two companies and informed of alleged shortcomings of the Orange application.
In her defence, the regulator denied that she failed, refused or neglected to properly consider the applications from both companies.
She also denied that her decision was erroneous or perverse.
Meteor, in its defence, did not accept that the proceedings brought by Orange involved a new evaluation of the rival bids or that the court was to stand in the place of the regulator and entitled to assess the bids and award a licence.
