In a briefing, Ray Espinosa, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) head of regulatory affairs, told reporters that Globe Telecom Inc.'s opposition to the acquisition of Digital Telecommunications Philippines Inc. (Digitel) springs from the Ayala-led telco's need to "cure their inefficiency." "We are not surrendering it because, in fact we need more," Espinosa said.
He said PLDT is more efficient in using its assigned frequencies with 406,000 subscribers per megahertz (Mhz) compared with Globe's 303,000.
PLDT has a total frequency of 112.5 Mhz serving 45.64 million subscribers, while Globe has 87.5 Mhz for 26.5 million subscribers.
Digitel's Sun Cellular has 330,000 subscribers per MHZ and a total of 42.5 Mhz. Its subscribers number 14 million.
"They want PLDT to give concessions to make up for their own inefficiency and they want to use the NTC for that. The issues that they are raising [have] nothing to do with the deal," Espinosa said.
The PLDT legal counsel also said the Digitel acquisition should be viewed by the National Telecommunications Commission on the basis of the greater public good.
"The deal will bring enormous benefit to the public because of the much better service and accelerated rollout of high-speed Internet broadband," Espinosa said.
Orlando Vea, chief wireless advisor of PLDT unit Smart Communications Inc., admitted the PLDT group's mobile frequency, including broadband, was 77 percent higher than Globe's. "But our subscriber base is 126 percent more than Globe," he said.
"In fact, we are asking the NTC for more frequency because at the rate we are using our frequencies for our services we need more in order to serve more subscribers," Vea said.
Espinosa belied Globe's anti-monopoly credentials, pointing out the exclusion of other telcos inside Ayala malls.
In a separate briefing, Rodolfo Salalima, Globe counsel said the NTC should stop granting frequencies to the PLDT group.
"The NTC should balance the frequency and rationalize the distribution of the frequency," the lawyer said.
"We are not asking favor, we just want NTC to act under the law. The duty of the government is to protect their rivals. The state owns it. Nobody owns it," he said.
Salalima said the government, through NTC, should implement "pre-emptive moves and regulations to protect fair and free competition" from the significant market power of the PLDT group.
Gamaliel Cordoba, NTC commissioner, had said President Benigno Aquino 3rd already gave the regulator the marching order to study the PLDT-Digitel deal.
On April 20, the two telcosjointly filed an application before the NTC to approve their transaction.
PLDT earlier said it will buy 51.55 percent of Digitel from Gokongwei-led JG Summit Holdings Inc. in a share-swap deal valued at P69.2 billion.
Chaired by Manuel Pangilinan, PLDT also will acquire the remaining Digitel shares held by the public, raising the total acquisition price to P74.1 billion.
PLDT shares fell to P2.462 apiece on Thursday from P2,466 the day before, while Globe shares To see more of The Manila Times, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.manilatimes.net. Copyright (c) 2011, The Manila Times, Philippines Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com.
