SANTIAGO-Owned Philippine Telegraph and Telephone Corp. (PT&T) said a frequency test it ran through its network may have caused the signal interference problem experienced by Sun Cellular.

“What may have caused interference, if one indeed happened, is the test on the 1769.5 Megahertz [MHz] between Bulacan and Makati,  where PT&T, in line with the ongoing temporary solution that PT&T is completing,” the company told the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) in response to a cease-and-desist order (CDO) issued last month.

The NTC, acting on the letter-complaint of Sun Cellular filed last December 17, 2007, ordered PT&T to stop operating or using the frequency bands of 1855-1870MHz in Bulacan and Las Piñas because, according to the cellular firm, this causes interference thereby affecting its cellular sites.

“The frequency interference problem of our company caused by PT&T has affected more or less 70 sites between Bulacan and Las Piñas. The interference has resulted in a degraded network quality,” said Sun Cellular senior vice president for legal services William Pamintuan.

But PT&T said it could not have been operating in the said bandwidth because it does not have a point-to-point radio link between Bulacan and Las Piñas. The interference, it explained, was not intentionally done but occurred in the ordinary course of a frequency test.

What may have caused the interference is the test on 1769.5MHz where PT&T configured on a cross polarized antennae vis-à-vis that of Sun Cellular’s vertical polarization, the company told the NTC.

Besides, the frequency test had already ended upon learning that Sun Cellular picked up PT&T’s test signal, PT&T said.

“The NTC could ask the complainant to confirm that the interference encountered in the frequency is no longer present in order for the commission to dismiss the complaint,” PT&T said.

PT&T also said that the test it undertook was necessary to address a similar complaint of Globe Telecom, which asked the NTC to order PT&T to vacate from the 3G frequency bandwidth assigned to the cellular firm.

“The test was undertaken in line with the  ongoing temporary solution that PT&T is completing with the intention of eliminating the radio frequency interference to Globe’s 3G frequency band, which is the subject of an administrative complaint docketed as ADM. Case 2007-225,” said PT&T.

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