Globe Urges DoJ To Follow US Lead In Telecom Merger

Globe Telecom has urged the Justice Department, which has been appointed by President Aquino as the Competition Authority, to follow the lead of its US counterpart in opposing a planned merger that will create a monopoly in the telecommunications market. “Government intervention is necessary to ensure that there is a level playing field and allow healthy competition to boost the quality of services for the benefit of consumers,” according to Globe corporate communications head Yoly Crisanto. Globe cited the filing by the United States Justice Department of a civil antitrust lawsuit at the US District Court in Washington against AT&T for its $39-billion purchase of T-Mobile USA in what industry pundits say as raising the stakes in antitrust jurisprudence. Crisanto said this development is seen as a welcome input to the Aquino administration’s strong anti-monopoly stance which is incidentally aligned with his “Matuwid na Daan” or a straight path approach to issues involving corruption and the protection and promotion of public interest. Based on reports, the US Justice Department believed that the proposed merger would “stifle competition and lead to higher wireless prices, less innovation and fewer choices for consumers.” These were reiterated in a news conference by Deputy Attorney General James Cole, saying that the merger would result in “tens of millions of consumers all across the United States facing higher prices, fewer choices and lower quality products for mobile wireless services.” “The AT&T, T-Mobile merger, under review by the Federal Communications Commission, bears a striking resemblance to the local PLDT-Digitel merger which is likewise under review by the Philippine regulator, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC),” Crisanto added. Between AT&T and T-Mobile, the merger will compete nationwide in 97 of the largest 100 cellular marketing areas. The PLDT-Digitel merger, on the other hand, will give it 70 percent of the total market and excess frequencies at a ratio of 4.5 vs. 1 of Globe. AT&T is being accused of “hoarding spectrum”, said to be sitting on top of a 700MHz spectrum acquired in 2008 auctions and its Advanced Wireless Services spectrum to roll out 4G LTE service. AT&T is said to be planning to cover 97 percent of the US population with 4G service if the merger is approved. The AT&T purchase of T-Mobile, however, was alleged to have been a move to solve its spectrum issues brought about by the surge in mobile broadband use. Consistent with his anti-monopoly position, President Benigno Aquino said, when asked in an interview about the PLDT case at the NTC, that “our interest here is to ensure that there is no monopoly and that we promised a level-playing field, and about 85 million mobile-phone users can’t be tied to one provider.” Last June 9 this year, President Aquino signed Executive Order No. 45 designating the Department of Justice as the Competition Authority.