(Second of three parts)
Globe Telecom Inc.’s letter to the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) detailing a possible return to the “dark ages” of monopoly also cited a rather peculiar way by which Internet traffic—done through IP peering, essentially a voluntary interconnection between two separate Internet networks—is routed intentionally by the dominant telco via a circuitous international link-up that involves additional costs, not to mention a degrading of the communication line.
For Globe, it does not make sense at all for Internet traffic to first go out via an international route before being routed back to the country. And this, apparently, is what Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) is doing. When an Internet user from, say, Pangasinan communicates with someone from Cebu, that direct route—which is a local one—does not happen; the link-up is done via an international routing mechanism.
This circuitous rerouting adds to cost and is almost always the reason for the sluggish response time for those using Internet space. The resort to the international route is something that Globe wants addressed by the government regulatory body since it results in wastage.
“The circuitous routing of data represents additional cost for the sending party [and the consumer] because
today, the peering partner can charge a fee for serving data transmission requirements—in an unfair sense, even for domestic peering with data pushed out of country,” Globe told NTC.
There should be no extra charge for this, Globe said, as it asked the NTC to come up with an “official domestic IP peering policy for the public good.” In this way, when the link-up in Internet space is between two domestic points, the route should be direct.
“These will immediately result in a faster, better Internet access experience for consumers,” Globe said, when the Internet traffic between one from Pangasinan and another from Cebu does not have to go out of the country before coming back.
“Domestic IP peering should ideally be free of charge following simple logic that consumer and service provider only want to ply and pay for a domestic route, not an international one. When no peering costs are charged for domestic data transmission, lower Internet access rates can be the norm,” Globe told NTC.
The current industry policy prevents interconnection charges from being levied when landline calls are made within the same local calling area (e.g. province). This practice has generally rendered local landline calls “free” apart from the standard monthly fee for the service, but without interconnection charges to be borne by both service provider and consumer. In a similar context, without peering costs for domestic-data transmission, pressure to lower Internet access rates can be rightfully applied.
Globe firmly believes that developing a domestic IP peering policy is in the interest of consumers. Negating circuitous data-traffic routes will improve the consumer experience and can lower Internet access rates and thereby benefit the consumers. What Globe is then proposing is for “PLDT’s [and its group’s] wholehearted cooperation on this IP peering policy.”
Another complaint that Globe wants addressed is the reallocation of the 3G, a to low-spectrum band that is crucial to the delivery of data in buildings. It said the NTC specifically limited any telco from controlling more than 50 percent of the 3G band when this spectrum was bid out.
But with the deal between PLDT and Digital Telecommunications Philippines Inc. (Digitel), this has been breached. On this, Globe said, the band that PLDT controls in the 3G frequency, with its acquisition of Digitel’s 3G spectrum, is frowned upon by, and a circumvention of, NTC Memorandum Circular 07-08-2005 (Rules and Regulations on the Allocation and Assignment of 3G Radio Frequency Bands), which reads:
“Section 3. Criteria to be used in the selection of qualified public telecommunications entities 3.5 Entities with more than 50 percent of common stocks owned by the same person or group of persons shall be considered as associated applicants, at the time of application, and such entities shall be allowed to elect one of them to proceed in the filing of application for 3G services and 3G radio spectrum before the Commission.”
“Thus, from the immediately preceding discussion, had this PLDT/Digitel deal been done prior to the initial assignment of the 3G radio frequency bands, PLDT/Cure/Smart and, now, Digitel as a group, could not have been assigned the totality of their present individual frequencies which, in relation to Globe Telecom’s is a ratio of 1:4.5 3G frequency lopsidedly in favor of the now PLDT group. For a group to control virtually all the powerful frequency spectra, a scant resource owned by the government, was never the intent of the government/NTC from the very start of ‘free competition,’” Globe said.
“Such monopoly control should not be countenanced,” Globe said.
(To be concluded)
