ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A union on Thursday accused Iraq’s Communications and Media Commission (CMC) of joining an “economic war” against the Kurdistan Region through its plan to cut off internet services for Korek Telecom.
“What is being done to Korek Telecom makes it very clear that the Communications and Media Commission has become part of Baghdad's plan of economic war with the Kurdistan Region and has political and dangerous goals behind it,” the Kurdistan Communications Union said in a statement.
"About 600 employees of Korek Telecom have been laid off since November 1, 2023," Zeravan Bahadin, head of the union, told Rudaw.
“We are meeting with Korek and we want to protect the rights of the employees who have lost their jobs,” Bahadin said.
On Tuesday, the CMC stated that it was suspending Korek’s internet services “due to non-compliance with paying outstanding debts and continued violations,” and “to encourage” the telecom company to “settle its debts.”
The CMC sent an official letter to the Iraqi communications ministry urging the implementation of the decision against Korek. It also called on the telecom company to compensate its subscribers.
Korek and the CMC have been in a dispute since 2007 when the commission gave three million subscribers that Korek was supposed to inherit to a competitor, according to Mazen Sirwan Barzani, the director of communications at Korek Telecom who spoke to Rudaw on Thursday.
He said that in 2015, a court ruled that Korek does not have to pay its licensing fee until the matter is resolved and disputed the amount his company owes to CMC.
“We have a total of $1.2 billion in debt, licensing, taxes, options and 4G internet services. We have said that we will sign it and pay it back in installments over several years, but we will go to court for the $665 million because we consider it our legal right not to pay that amount,” Barzani said.
Korek subscribers across Iraq and the Kurdistan Region have been unable to make or receive calls, or send and receive messages from both domestic and international carriers for over a year. The disruption stemmed from a November 2023 decision by the CMC to block Korek’s communications over its unpaid financial obligations.
A month earlier, the CMC had warned Korek that its operating license had expired and would not be renewed because it had failed to pay “large sums” of owed money.
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