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DIGITAL
Telecommunications Phils. Inc., or Digitel, is willing
to shoulder expenses for activating the much needed
interconnect trunks to solve the congestion dispute with
Eastern Telecommunications Philippines Inc.
Eastern,
however, seemed uninterested that the two-year-old
dispute remains unresolved.
In a May
2 meeting with Eastern, Digitel said it offered to
activate additional E1 trunks free of charge to cater to
the Go Premium Internet service of its protagonist.
“However, up to this date, [Eastern] representatives
never informed us their acceptance or nonacceptance of
the offer, despite their assurance that they would get
back once they get their top management’s comment,” the
phone firm of the Gokongwei group said in filing with
the National Telecommunications Commission.
Digitel
said there was nothing unreasonable in the terms and
conditions for activating the trunks since these would
be provided free of charge and all that Eastern needed
to do was direct their technical group to coordinate the
procedure.
“It is
very clear then that it is not Digitel who forestalls or
delays the early resolution of this case. It is
precisely [Eastern] who unreasonably refuses to accede
to the offer, which we strongly regard as the best
solution to end the controversy so that the parties can
efficiently run their businesses as usual,” Digitel said
in its four-page letter to the commission.
Digitel
said it should not be held liable for the alleged damage
the congestion problem has caused or is causing to
Eastern subscribers. “[Eastern] very well knows that
this additional trunk is the only solution to the
congestion problem, and yet, they continuously refuse to
coordinate and cooperate.”
The
phone unit of JG Summit Holdings Inc. denied allegations
that it blocked the access number of the Go Internet
cards sometime in September 2006.
“The
real cause of the congestion is due to the heavy flow of
traffic caused by the almost 24-hour use of the Go
Internet subscribers,” said Digitel.
Digitel
said it was constrained to temporarily block the access
number because its own subscribers were deprived of
efficient and better access to local connection. It
unblocked the access number after sometime. |
