GLOBE Telecom again asked the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to tell Smart Communications Inc. and Pilipino Telephone Corp., or PilTel, to stop their promotional offers in violation of anticompetitive and discriminatory laws.

This is the fourth complaint Globe lodged against the group of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) since 2005.

“PilTel and Smart have the penchant for violating the rules prohibiting anti-competitive behavior, and the promos are but the latest in its many such violations. This is a clear and unmistakable manifestation of their unmitigated arrogance and lack of respect for the Commission and its rules,” according to Globe head for regulatory affairs Froilan Castelo.

The latest complaint, according to Castelo, was recently filed with the commission.

Castelo was referring to the All Text Plus promo of Smart and PilTel and PilTel’s Gaan Text Plus 10. The first promo allows subscribers to send 90 Smart-to- Smart and Smart-to-PilTel text messages plus 10 more to other networks and P1 airtime for only P20. The other promo allows PilTel subscribers to send 40 PilTel-to-PilTel and PilTel-to-Smart text messages and five more to other networks for one day.

According to Castelo, PilTel and Smart are extending to each other favorable rates without offering the same to Globe.

Under the first promo, text messages from Smart to PilTel cost only P0.177 per message, while under the second promo, text messages from a PilTel to a Smart subscriber are only P0.12 each. These rates, said Castelo, are far below the prevailing short message service interconnect charge of P0.40 per text message.

When sought for comment, Smart legal head Rogelio Quevedo denied that the cellular units of PLDT are giving preferential rates to one another.

“The discriminatory and predatory accusations do not exist in the Smart-PilTel arrangement because we actually offer the same access charges under the same circumstances to all similarly situated carries,” said Quevedo in an interview.

Castelo said PilTel and Smart are using their facilities management agreement, which had been approved by the commission, as an excuse to legitimize their so-called “insidious pricing scheme.”

Under the said agreement, Smart and PilTel are not interconnected. Smart merely manages the PilTel network.

But Castelo said the agreement does not regard PilTel and Smart networks as one network. “The authority given by the NTC is merely approving Smart’s facilities management, administrative support and customer service management over PilTel. Nothing more, nothing less. It does not authorize the merger of Smart and PilTel and thus exempt them from paying access charges to one another.”

Quevedo said Globe should focus on competing effectively rather than complain on the promotional offer of other carriers.

“The NTC is not the battlefield but it is in the hands of the subscribers who have placed their confidence in Smart and PilTel. Sad to say, Globe is already lagging behind. That is why we have more subscribers than Globe. They should step up their marketing efforts so that they can match the same offerings of Smart and PilTel rather than fight us at the NTC with their complaint,” said Quevedo.

Quevedo also said that Globe’s latest complaint is a rehash of complaints submitted to the NTC.

Castelo said his complaint again involves discriminatory practices. The promos, which Castelo said are clear examples of cutthroat pricing schemes and ruinous competition, must be stopped as this may force carriers to drastically lower their airtime rates with the resulting deterioration of service quality.

“PilTel and Smart have again crossed the line so clearly drawn by the NTC. PilTel, Smart and PLDT are repeat offenders when it comes to the NTC’s policy against discriminatory pricing, dating back from 2005 to the present,” Castelo said.

PLDT was engaged in a similar dispute with Globe when the latter accused the phone giant of engaging in predatory and discriminatory acts for offering unlimited calls to Smart and PilTel subscribers for P10 for 10 minutes.

The issue was resolved only after PLDT pulled out its unlimited offering and agreed to implement existing access charges. Globe, on the other hand, withdrew its administrative complaint against PLDT.

This was the same argument raised by Globe last year when it accused Smart and PilTel of unfair and discriminatory practices in their All Day-Texting 258 Call + Text promo.

The same charges were raised by Globe against the cellular firms’ Load All Text 20 and P10 and P15 Flat Rate service promos.

 “With the elimination of other carriers, this promotional scheme smacks then of discrimination, as well as cutthroat competition, in violation of NTC Memorandum Circular 14-7-2000 and the Orders of the Honorable Commission in NTC Case 2005-022,” Globe said.

The commission defines predatory pricing in a 2002 circular as a situation where a rate is below the appropriate cost of supplying the service, and is at a level that is so low that it cannot be sustained in the long term when compared to the charges for interconnect services.

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GLOBE Telecom again asked the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to tell Smart Communications Inc. and Pilipino Telephone Corp., or PilTel, to stop their promotional offers in violation of anticompetitive and discriminatory laws.

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