Chief Justice Richard Ground yesterday halted a trial over Digicel’s long distance service, ruling the dispute should go before the Telecommunications Commission.In ordering the stay of proceedings, Mr Justice Ground said the Commission was set up and had the power to deal with the kind of dispute before him and was the best place to decide such technical issues as the definition of “bundling”.The Commission is chaired by Mr Ronald Simmons.The court noted that any party that’s unhappy with a Commission decision can appeal to the courts.Digicel vigorously opposed sending the case to the Commission.Digicel lawyer Jan Woloniecki argued yesterday that halting the trial, which was supposed to begin yesterday morning, would be “unconstitutional” and “a shocking injustice” to his clients.He said Digicel had gone to enormous expense preparing for a trial, which “everyone’s now trying to stop”.“We have the right to be heard,” he said. “The court has a duty to hear us.”The question of whether the dispute should go to the Commission before going before the courts was raised by CellOne lawyers Larry Mussenden and Shade Subair, after the Commission’s private lawyer Paul Harshaw asked that the Commission be removed from being a party to the Supreme Court proceedings.Mr Mussenden and Ms Subair requested a stay of proceedings after revealing that an official complaint by CellOne had been made to the Commission on Tuesday.Their submission was followed by a lengthy round of arguments over why CellOne was making a complaint to the Commission at this stage, with Mr Woloniecki charging CellOne was trying to “derail the trial”.There were also lengthy arguments over technical issues, with Government’s lawyer asking for an adjournment to gather evidence, and Digicel’s lawyer asking for Government to be compelled to answer questions about certain evidence, while TBI’s lawyer Mark Diel said they needed time to respond to a new Digicel’s affidavit. There were also arguments over whether Digicel CEO Wayne Caines could be cross-examined at trial.But as it turned out, all the pretrial arguments were in vain as Mr Justice Ground ended up halting the trial.Government had joined with long distance provider TBI and CellOne in objecting to Digicel’s launch of long distance service.Digicel meanwhile, was battling CellOne for not providing interconnection.ISP North Rock has also gotten involved, sending a letter to the AG calling on Government to declare Transact in breach of its licence, which would effectively stop it from carrying on business.In affidavits, Government has alleged Digicel’s long distance service offered through sister company Transact was not lawful, and further, Transact does not have a licence to do business in Bermuda.However, Digicel insisted the new long distance service was lawful and was permitted by Government.Mr Justice Ground ordered the parties back in court this morning, to deal with outstanding issues, including whether the court order halting Digicel long distance service, should stand.In a statement released last night, Digicel said the proceedings were “disappointing” in that the planned trial never took place as planned.“Numerous concerted applications were made by CellOne, TeleBermuda and by the AG this morning which were all designed to prevent the proceedings from commencing or being concluded before the Chief Justice,” Digicel stated.“Whilst the Chief Justice summarily dismissed the previous applications made by these parties, he decided this afternoon that the matter ought to be remitted to the Telecoms Commission at the first instance.“It is important to note that there was no determination of the legality of Digicel’s and Transact’s long distance service and that no party was found to be right or wrong. Instead, the Chief Justice has stated he will not make a ruling until the matter has been heard first by the Telecommunications Commission.“Obviously, Digicel would have preferred that the case was fully heard in order to provide closure on the matter which will likely now be dragged out further by our competitors who have a clear will to delay any outcome in the near future.“This delay is not in the interest of the public who clearly appreciate the competition Digicel has created and the desire the value we have bought to the long distance market.”