NTC not likely to grant Globe request for add'l frequency

The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) is unlikely to grant the request by Globe Telecom for additional five Megahertz (MHz) radio frequency supposedly necessary to accommodate its growing subscriber base.

Edgardo Cabarios, NTC common carriers accreditation division chief, said yesterday that with its eventual merger with another cellular phone provider, Isla Communications Co. (Islacom), Globe will have enough capacity to last for two or three years.

"Globe and Islacom would have 25 MHz of frequency between them which will be more than sufficient to address their concerns. That frequency cannot be eaten up immediately," he pointed out.

In its application for additional frequency sent to the NTC last month, Globe said its network is only designed to handle 1.5 million customers although upgrades are currently being undertaken to accommodate up to 2.4 million subscribers by yearend.

Globe wants to expand its network to prevent congestion once it reaches its target of 3.7 million customers by 2001 and a total of five million by end of 2002.

At present, Globe has about 1.3 million subscribers in its 15 MHz frequency at the 1800 frequency band while Islacom, only has about 200,000 customers enjoying the highly underutilized 10 MHz frequency allocated to the company.

Although Globe's formal takeover of Islacom's operations will not be complete until late this year, the two firms have already started merging some activities, a move that will displace about 1,500 Islacom employees.

Globe's stiffest competitor, Smart Communications Inc. and its sister company Pilipino Telephone Corp. (Piltel) also have the same frequency allocation as the Globe-Islacom tandem although Smart is asking for another five MHz frequency from the NTC.

NTC only has 20 MHz of available frequency at the 1800 MHz radio spectrum of which at least 7.5 MHz will be given to Bayan Telecommunications Inc. (BayanTel) which was recently granted a provisional authority (PA) to operate mobile phone services.