NTC to meet Smart, Infocom officials on linkup problem

The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) will be meeting with officials of Smart Communications, Inc. and Infocom Communication Network, Inc. (Nextel) to come up with a compromise on the terms of their networks’ interconnection.

However, NTC Commissioner Joseph Santiago said that this is without prejudice to the pending administrative case wherein Smart filed a motion for reconsideration on NTC’s decision to penalize it for refusing to interconnect its network with that of Infocom.

The NTC last Dec. 18 suspended action on all pending and future applications for permits, licenses or authorizations by Smart until such time that the latter interconnects its cellular mobile telephone system (CMTS) with the trunk radio network (TRN) of Infocom.

This may affect Smart’s application for a certificate of public convenience (CPCN), which is supposed to replace the company’s 18-month provisional authority from the NTC which expired last November.

The PA of rival Globe Telecom expired in September-October. Like Smart, the extension of Globe’s PA hangs in the balance, especially after Santiago revealed that he is planning to impose several conditions on the Ayala-owned company prior to the grant of its request.

Santiago said he hopes to convince Smart and Infocom to amicably settle their differences.

The NTC, in its latest order, asked Smart to implement the commission’s Dec. 23, 1999 ruling which required that the settlement between the two be based on the incremental costs to be determined by the commission after the parties have submitted their respective costs.

Pending determination of the incremental costs, the NTC in its Dec. 23, 1999 ruling ordered that the interconnect facilities between the two networks be equally shared; that the facilities needed to carry the interconnect traffic within each network be the responsibility of each carrier, and that the interconnect charges to and from each operator in the interim be equal to P1.50 per minute. NTC rejected motions by Smart to reconsider the Dec. 23 ruling.

Smart, in a letter to Infocom dated Sept. 19, 2000, wants the latter to pay the full airtime of P9.69 per minute inclusive of foreign currency adjustment, and P2,400 per trunk per month for the use of the trunks that will interconnect their respective facilities.

The cellular phone company also required Infocom to put up a performance bond of P200 million.