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Sun's 24/7 plan stays--NTC

Posted 01:58am (Mla time) Feb 14, 2005
By Clarissa Batino
Inquirer News Service

SUN Cellular, the smallest of the wireless giants, has been given a temporary reprieve after the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) denied the petition of the leading mobile players to stop Sun's 24/7 unlimited, within-network plan.

The NTC directed Digitel Mobile Philippines Inc. Friday night to answer within 15 days the charges made by its competitor that it was engaging in predatory and discriminatory pricing and that it was delivering poor service to its subscribers.

"We denied the request of Digitel's competitors for a cease-and-desist order against [the] 24/7 [plan]. The Commission believes circumstances don't warrant enjoining 24/7 since no prejudice or damage has been done to the public," NTC Chair Ronald Solis said in an interview.

The NTC had set hearings on March 7 and 8 to discuss the issues against Sun's 24/7.

Two-year-old Sun Cellular is the trade name of Gokongwei-owned Digitel. It has not been able to make a headway until it launched 24/7 in October. Since then, it had more than doubled its subscriber base from 700,000 in September to about 1.5 million to date.

The 24/7 plan allows Sun Cellular customers to call and text within the network, without any limit, for an additional fee of P250 a month or P100 for 10 days.

Pilipino Telephone Corp., a unit of Smart Communications Inc. and Innove Communications of Globe Telecom Inc. have asked the NTC separately to stop Sun Cellular from offering its 24/7 plan.

The two alleged that Digitel was failing the service performance benchmark of the NTC.

"We are pleased with the decision of the NTC to deny the requests of Smart and Globe. We have always believed that the complaint they filed have no merit," said Digitel senior vice president William Pamintuan.

"We commend the NTC for protecting the interest of consumers in ensuring that free and real competition is introduced in the cellular market," he added. Smart and Globe officials could not be reached for comment.

Last week, a lawmaker called for a congressional investigation into the pricing mechanism of telecom companies after accusing Smart and Globe of behaving like a cartel that wanted to kill competition in the industry.

"I move that we investigate the current state of the telecom industry, including the processes and dynamics of determining the rates and charges for mobile services to encourage competition, prevent monopolist control or cartelization of the industry and to protect consumers," said Isabela Rep. Rodolfo Albano in a privilege speech.

He pointed out that the Gokongwei carrier only accounts for less than 5 percent of the wireless industry still dominated by Smart with its more than 19 million subscribers and Globe's 12.5 million customers as of end-2004.

Albano said Sun Cellular was in no position to be the "predator" in the wireless phone industry.

"Sun Cellular has made us realize that mobile phone services should not be as expensive or as costly as they are now being offered by the two dominant telecom firms," the congressman said.