CableVision yesterday withdrew a writ against rival television company World on Wireless (WOW) and Government over transmission frequencies.

CableVision took out the writ in December because it said it wanted to ensure the frequency used by WOW did not interfere with its operations.

CableVision general manager Jeremy Elmas said yesterday the company had withdrawn the writ against WOW and the Ministry of Telecommunications because it was “premature” because, he claimed, no frequencies and final licences had been issued. But WOW president Gavin Wilson said he had been issued a frequency and a licence to offer a subscription television service.

The company was only awaiting the final radio licence, which he said was a technical matter which will not be issued until Ministry staff inspect the equipment when it is in place.

And Mr. Wilson said he had been baffled by the writ because his 115 channel service could only interfere with CableVision if there was a leak in the CableVision transmission.

“There was a hearing today and it was going to be withdrawn because the frequencies and the final licences have not been issued so it would be premature,” Mr. Elmas told The Royal Gazette.

When asked if the company might go back to court against WOW and the Ministry again, he said: “I don't know to tell the truth.

“What we really wanted to occur was for the Ministry to consider everything that interfered with us and our operations. “If they told us the frequencies were not the same as the ones we use then fine, but for some reason they didn't give us that.

“We hope not. We are trying to get information to the Ministry to aid the information process, but we can't predict the future.”

Mr. Wilson said yesterday: “They have decided not to pursue it which is really good. I didn't really understand what it was in the first place.

“We use public domains, which is over the airwaves, and they use an artificial spectrum i.e. in the cable.

“The only way that we could interfere with their transmission is if their transmission leaks. We could only interfere with them if their system was leaking, and if their system was leaking, they should repair it.”

Mr. Wilson said the company's giant dish had arrived at the site used by ZBM and he was hoping the service would be up and running by the end of March or early April.

Around 500 had signed a questionnaire about the service on the company's website and a test will be done on some of these.

But WOW has not yet began taking subscriptions, said Mr. Wilson.