In a developing business story out of Belize’s telecommunications sector, the proposed acquisition of Speednet by BTL is facing growing pushback from a group of former company employees, who say vague public assurances about the deal’s national benefits are not enough to win their trust. The Belize Communication Workers for Justice (BCWJ), the group leading the campaign, is demanding full public disclosure of key details of the merger: how Speednet’s assets have been valued, what impacts the consolidation will have on existing and former staff, and why the Belizean public should accept a deal already signed off by BTL’s board of directors without independent scrutiny.
BCWJ organizer Emily Turner argues that BTL’s long track record of poor accountability makes it impossible for workers and the public to take the board’s assurances at face value. In comments echoed across the group’s campaign, Turner laid out the specific information the BCWJ says Belizeans are entitled to access. “Belizeans should be shown the financial basis for the valuation, the technology assessment, the full integration cost, effect on competition and prices, and plan for workers,” Turner said. “We are not asking the public to take BCWJ’s word for it. We are asking BTL to show Belize the evidence.”
Turner added that little progress has been made on transparency since the BCWJ first raised concerns in January 2026, noting that BTL has released no new information to the public or key social partner groups to address initial questions. “That’s the reason why we have decided to also come out and show our solidarity with the social partners on this matter,” she said. “It is an issue at the heart of what we represent. We believe that at the heart of this issue is accountability. And we have had our challenges with BTL when it comes to accountability and BTL is asking us to take their word for it. And that is something that we have had a struggle with doing.”
Beyond transparency concerns, the former workers warn the merger poses a direct threat to job security for existing BTL staff, particularly long-tenured employees who helped build the company. The BCWJ fears that corporate claims of pursuing “operational efficiencies” will be used to justify another round of layoffs, echoing past restructuring events that displaced longtime workers.
Turner said there are already early signs of this pattern unfolding, with employees from Speednet’s consumer brand Smart being placed in senior leadership roles at BTL ahead of the merger’s finalization. As restructuring moves forward, she argued, frontline and long-serving BTL workers will be the first to face displacement, while executive leadership pay and roles remain untouched.
“They are already bringing in smart employees and they are giving them higher positions than the current BTL employees,” Turner explained. “When a company is talking about efficiencies, they are not talking about cut salaries from the C-levels and the GMs or bring down the money that the directors get paid. They are not talking about that, they are talking about the people all the way at the bottom, those are the people where they will find the efficiencies with.”
Turner added that layoffs have a devastating impact on working households, particularly for workers who have dedicated decades of their careers to BTL. “It’s very hard, especially if you are the person that is the main provider in your family, it’s a challenge,” she said.
What once started as tentative support for the acquisition among current BTL workers has now shifted sharply to opposition: a recent internal poll of workers found that 84% of respondents now vote against moving forward with the Speednet purchase. This report is a transcript of a televised evening newscast, with all informal and Kriol language transcribed using a standard spelling system.