PLDT opens up network to US carrier Sprint Communications

Telecom giant Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) has fully opened up its network to US carrier Sprint Communications in compliance with the Philippine government’s directive to speed up the resolution of rates disputes between local and US carriers.

Alfredo S. Panlilio, PLDT senior vice president and head of the international and carrier business group, said PLDT has now fully unblocked all circuits connecting the PLDT network to the Sprint network.

The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) , in its directive last Oct. 17, enjoined all local phone companies "to immediately accept terminating traffic via direct circuits from US facilities-based carriers on mutually acceptable final or interim termination rates, on terms and conditions agreed upon by the parties."

Under the present interim arrangement, Sprint will provisionally settle all outstanding amounts and pay interim termination fees to PLDT once the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) lifts its stop-payment order on PLDT.

Early this year, local carriers reached an impasse regarding termination rates with their US counterparts. Local carriers, as a result of rapidly declining revenues from long distance services, increased their termination rates charged to US carriers from eight to 12 cents a minute for calls to Philippines landlines and from 12 cents to 16 cents for calls to mobile phone networks effective Feb. 1, 2003. The new rates, according to Philippine carriers, were still lower than the US FCC benchmark rate.

However, the US carriers opposed this and asked the FCC to authorize US facility based carriers to stop making settlement payments to Philippine carriers. In March of this year, the FCC international bureau ordered US telecom firms to stop making payments unless the Philippine telcos roll back their rates to pre-Feb. 1 levels.

Just last September NTC Commissioner Armi Jane Borje met with US FCC Chairman Michael K. Powell in Washington D.C. Following that meeting, the NTC ordered the Philippine carriers to unblock circuits and negotiate mutually acceptable termination rates with the US carriers.

With the continuing negotiations of the carriers and the openness to reach mutually agreeable termination rates, it is expected that PLDT and other local carriers will soon fully restore normal business relations with US carriers.

PLDT and MCI-Worldcom International also recently reached an interim agreement on the termination rates and are now accepting calls for termination from each other’s networks.

"We are confident that the US FCC will soon lift its stop-payment order simply because it would be in the interest of all parties concerned. We do want to end this long-standing dispute as soon as possible so we can move on to improve our respective businesses," Panlilio said.