PLDT raps Globe in takeover probe

MANILA, Philippines—The Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) has again accused its rival Globe Telecom Inc. of trying to deceive the public in its attempt to nullify the former’s takeover of Digital Telecommunications Philippines Inc.

At the resumption of the National Telecommunications Commission’s (NTC) hearing on the Digitel takeover on Monday, PLDT said Globe’s claims on interconnection and frequency allocation were misleading and did not correctly state the facts.

Globe is the lead party opposing the takeover of Digitel, which will result in PLDT having a market share of 70 percent of the telecom business.

On Friday, Globe Telecom engineer Emmanuel Estrada argued in an affidavit that PLDT would end up with more frequencies than it would need to carry out its operations and that the “excess” frequencies must be reviewed and rationalized to protect consumers and ensure a level playing field among competitors.

Globe has said the PLDT group should be stripped of some of its frequencies to enable smaller companies to gain a share of the market. Unless this is done, Globe said, the PLDT group would have a virtual monopoly in the telecom sector.

In disputing the claim, PLDT regulatory affairs head Ray C. Espinosa said, “But PLDT’s share of frequencies is commensurate to its number of subscribers.”

He pointed out that the firm’s Smart unit had a total of 112.5 megahertz (MHz), Globe had 90 MHz, and Sun 42.5 MHz. “This is not disproportionate, given the respective subscriber bases of the three operators,” Espinosa said.