NTC denies issuing order for Infocom to halt service

Officials of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) said yesterday the regulatory body did not issue an order stopping trunk radio operator Infocom Communications Network Inc. from providing cellular telephone service.

Infocom has never provided cellular phone service so there is no need to order it from doing so, the NTC officials said.

The clarification came in the wake of reports that the Pittsburgh-based Nextel Communications Inc. is planning to infuse some $140 million in investments in the Philippines as soon as the revised Omnibus Investment Act is passed.

The NTC officials said Infocom's Nextel product is "basically a digital two-way radio service with advanced features including access to both landlines and cellular phones."

This feature is the result of the law on interconnection they explained.

Republic Act 7925 mandates that two-way radio systems must interconnect with telephone systems, both wireline and cellular, to allow their respective subscribers to access one another.

"But it does not mean it operates as a cellular phone carrier so there was never a need to issue such an order," they pointed out.

Infocom meanwhile explained that the Nextel uses the advanced Motorola iDEN technology which enables its users to access so-called public switched telephone network and provide paging services.

"We continue to market Nextel as a two-way radio service with advanced features," Infocom said.