MORE phone firms are opposing the application of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) to operate in areas not yet covered by its authorization.

Bayan Telecommunications Inc. (Bayan) said the phone giant’s request for the issuance of a certificate of public convenience and necessity (CPCN) to establish, operate and maintain telecommunications services in certain areas not yet covered by PLDT’s authorization will result in unfair and ruinous competition.

“The operation of the proposed service would constitute needless, wasteful and uneconomic duplication of existing telecommunications services provided by Bayan, resulting in a waste of valuable resources,” said Bayan.

The phone unit of the Lopez group, in its opposition submitted to the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), asked that PLDT’s application be denied.

“The approval of the instant application, provisionally or otherwise, is and will be injurious to public interest and violative of declared national and state policies,” added Bayan.

Another phone company operating in the province of Camarines Sur said the NTC cannot act on PLDT’s application.

L.M. United Telephone Co. Inc. (Unitedtel) said PLDT failed to state in its application which of the areas applied for are unserved or underserved.

“The commission is mandated to give priority to unserved areas. Where there are existing operators of the same service in the same area applied for, the application must allege the ultimate facts required by the regulations showing that the area is underserved, otherwise, the commission cannot validly act on the application,” said Unitedtel in a filing with the NTC.

Unitedtel and Bayan are already providing the same service in the areas where PLDT wishes to operate. Unitedtel said there is already a glut of telephone lines and saturation of the market in these areas.

“There is now an unhealthy and cutthroat competition between Unitedtel and Bayan for each other’s existing subscribers.

To grant PLDT its application will violate our rights to be protected from overlapping operations guaranteed under the Telecoms Public Act,” added Unitedtel.

The Southern Telecommunications Co. Inc. (Sotelco) also told the NTC that it was opposing PLDT’s application.  It does not want PLDT to operate in Region 10. 

Earlier, the wireline unit of Globe Telecom also said the entry of PLDT in areas already served by other carriers would result in ruinous competition and a waste of valuable resources since there would only be duplication of services.

Innove said there is neither the need nor urgency of a new carrier such as PLDT to provide wireline service and/or ICT (information and communications technology) enable service or facilities in areas that are already being served by existing carriers.

“The entry of PLDT will only bring about ruinous competition by competing carriers. It is a well-known fact that where capacity exceeds demand, ruinous competition would naturally result,” said Innove.

The 40-percent unsubscribed telephone density nationwide experienced some four years ago still prevails until now, noted Innove.

“The market is flooded with LEC [local exchange carrier] services as well as data and information networks with advanced and usable functionalities utilizing the technology being used by the existing carriers and other operators. There is thus absolutely no demand for the service applied for,” added Innove.

PLDT wants to expand the geographical area of its network to cover the entire country. Thus, even after the NTC issued in April a provisional authority for it to operate in regions 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, ARMM, and Caraga, the phone giant filed recently another application.

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MORE phone firms are opposing the application of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) to operate in areas not yet covered by its authorization.