Bad Faith

While American telecommunications giants AT&T and MCI/Worldcom have been accusing our local telcos of unfair practice, it appears that they are the ones that are doing business in bad faith.

AT&T for instance wants Philippine carriers to agree to an interim/provisional rate of only 6.5 cents a minute for fixed traffic and 10 cents for mobile traffic (the amount local telcos will charge foreign carriers for calls to the Philippines). But, on the one hand, it already proposes to charge its own customers at the higher rate of 12 cents a minute for fixed traffic and 16 cents minute for mobile traffic.

This is more than sufficient proof that AT&T clearly wants to take advantage of its own customers at the expense of PLDT and other Philippine telecommunication carriers.

It is very clear that AT&T and MCI/Worldcom are plain and simple ‘middlemen’ who are simply bent on keeping as much profits to themselves given their respective strained financial situations.

In an effort to shore up their sagging revenues in the US, these ‘middlemen’ have already increased their charges and rates in the US, despite the fact that it has refused the recent increase in termination rates imposed by Philippine carriers.

The days of the ‘big bells’ in the US are gone. AT&T and Worldcom have to face reality. They cannot continue reaping profits by depriving their partners of what is due them. The new Philippines rates of 12 cents for US calls to landlines in the Philippines and 16 cents for calls to mobile phones have already been widely accepted by the international telecommunications market.

In fact, as of Feb. 24, 2003, a total of 94 foreign telecommunication carriers had already accepted, and agreed to these new termination rates, which refers to the amount which the company is supposed to receive from these foreign telcos for calls terminating or landing in its network.

In the US alone, a total of 14 telecommunication carriers, including Sprint (a major US long distance telecommunication carrier), have already agreed to the new termination rates. In Canada, there are two major telecommunication carriers, Teleglobe and Telus, that have accepted the new rates

Major telecommunication carriers in Saipan, Guam, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia, Australia, Switzerland, Cyprus, Spain, Denmark, UAE, Germany, Norway, Qatar, Portugal, Israel and the United Kingdom have also accepted and agreed to the new term.

The new termination rates are well below the US FCC mandated benchmark of 19 cents a minute for low and middle income economies like the Philippines. Despite this, AT&T and MCI Worldcom have refused to accept them.

So, if our Filipino brothers in the US are having a hard time making calls to the Philippines, they know who to blame.

Digitel’s GSM launch

The much-awaited new offering of the Gokongwei group is set to commercial launch on Monday.

Digital Telecommunications Phils. Inc. (Digitel) has invited no less than President Arroyo herself to be the guest of honor during the commercial launching of the company’s mobile telephone operations at the Manila Midtown Hotel.

Branded as Sun Cellular, Digitel’s GSM service promises to give mobile telephony giants Globe Telecom and Smart Communications a run for their money. Despite it being a late entrant into the highly competitive cellular mobile telephone service (CMTS) business, Globe and Smart are not discounting the possibility that Digitel will provide genuine competition, especially when it comes to new mobile telephone users or the so-called entry level market.

But according to Digitel, it will not limit itself to the entry-level market. Despite its low rates, Digitel is also eyeing the high-end market with its array of cellular phone choices.

To Digitel, congratulations and good luck. Competition has always been good for the consumer, and the more players, the merrier.

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