Multi-Media Telephony joins opposition to NTC award of last 3G license

MANILA, Philippines - Multi-Media Telephony Inc. (MTI), known by its trade name Broadband Philippines, has filed a petition for a temporary restraining order (TRO) and preliminary injunction with the Court of Appeals to stop the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) from awarding the last available 3G (third generation of mobile communications technology) license under a new set of proposed rules.

MTI chief for corporate services Juan Lorenzo Tanada pointed out that the NTC should not award the last 3G license since CA has not resolved an earlier case filed by MTI that questioned the NTC’s decision not to award one of the then five 3G licenses.

In 2006, the NTC awarded 3G frequencies to Smart Communications, Globe Telecom, Digital Telecommunications Phils. Inc. (Sun Cellular) and Connectivity Unlimited Resources Enterprise (CURE). The last company was later on acquired by Smart.

The award to the four companies was made under NTC Memorandum Circular 07-08-2005. NTC then ruled that while MTI and Lopez-owned Bayan Telecommunications were among the six qualified applicants to apply for a 3G frequency band, the two failed to garner the required number of points under the circular.

Both MTI and Bayan went to the CA to question the NTC’s ruling. While the cases are still pending, the NTC recently proposed a new set of rules that will govern the bidding for the last 3G frequency which originally disallowed existing 3G frequency holders from participating in the bidding but later on removed the disqualification.

“We have a pending case before the CA underscoring our position as a deserving entity to be awarded with a 3G license. Judicial courtesy was severely violated by the NTC as a result of conducting a public hearing and issuing statements relative to the proposed auction,” Tanada said.

He added that there is an extreme, urgent and paramount necessity for the court to assert its authority and resolve MTI’s petition lest the actions of the NTC in proposing and advertising new guidelines for the auction render the current judicial proceedings inutile.

“We cannot afford to have our rights trampled upon by the NTC while a case is pending at the CA,” Tanada added.

He emphasized that the application for TRO was filed to prevent the NTC from awarding the last available 3G license to any entity other than MTI, as well as the issuance of any new rules or any action to start a new bidding process on the allocation of the last 3G band.

Tanada pointed out that it is completely unfair to start a whole new bidding process with new rules as this would also result to an entity getting a 3G license under more onerous conditions than the original grantees.

While the old rules merely allocated the 3G licenses at a fixed price of P65 million, the proposed new rules wanted to bid out the last 3G frequency at a minimum bid price of P65 million.

In a position paper submitted to the NTC, MTI stressed that the commission’s conduct of proceedings for the issuance of new rules for the allocation of the remaining 3G frequency band is contrary to law.

Tanada told the NTC that the drafting of the proposed circular would amount to a unilateral change in the rules of the game which would cause extreme prejudice to both old and new applicants since they will be governed by different sets of rules and standards. “Hence, there is no need to draft a separate memorandum circular since the 3G rules are already adequate for that purpose,” he said.