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INFORMATION technology provider, Multimedia Telephony
Inc. (MTI), is opposing the application of Pilipino
Telephone Corp. (Piltel) for a permit to operate a
nationwide data-transmission network.
MTI,
which operates under the brandname, Broadband
Philippines, was originally engaged in paging network
and call center operations but shifted to broadband and
local exchange telephone business in 2001.
On the
other hand, Piltel is third-largest cellular
mobile-telephone service provider. A subsidiary of Smart
Communications Inc. (Smart), Piltel offers the GSM brand
Talk ’N Text, the third-largest brand in the country.
It said
in a filing with the National Telecommunications
Commission (NTC) last week that Piltel’s application for
issuance of certificate of public convenience and
necessity (CPCN) to construct, install, operate and
maintain a nationwide data-communications network will
be a wasteful and unnecessary duplication of service and
would amount to unproductive use of resources, which
would be of better use if devoted to other public
services.
“The
grant of an authorization to another carrier to provide
basically the same service will strain the financial
viability of the carriers now presently providing
similar services. Moreover, there is no immediate public
need that this application would address as the limited
market is fully covered by the existing operators with
plenty to spare,” said MTI.
MTI is a
provider of data services and is also a holder of a CPCN
to install, operate and maintain an Internet Protocol
Access Node as well as a provisional authority to
install, operate and maintain a nationwide broadband
network, among others.
“Neither
would the general policy of liberalization of
telecommunications services be in point for the present
application of this policy in this particular case will
open the field of too many players competing over too
small a market,” added MTI.
Piltel,
as MTI pointed out, is not even entitled to a
provisional authority (PA), having failed to comply with
NTC circular 9-14-90, which mandates all applicants
seeking for PA to submit immediately all legal,
technical, financial, economic papers in support of
their application for evaluation.
“The
application is bereft of any showing that applicant is
technically and financially capable to install, maintain
and operate the services mentioned. The copy of the
application did not even have the annexes to in the
pleading attached,” said MTI.
Also,
Piltel’s application is not verified. “The foregoing
causes the pleading to be an unsigned pleading which
produces no legal effect, and maybe likened therefore to
a mere scrap of paper,” said MTI, adding that the NTC
should dismiss Piltel’s application.
After
MTI was awarded by the NTC with a nationwide broadband
license, it sold its paging division to Easycall in 1999
and in early 2000, sold its call-center business in
order to concentrate on new broadband projects. The
company’s network is now made up of wireless
transmitters capable of providing high-speed data and
voice access, virtual private networks, web-hosting,
Internet data centers and e-business applications. |
