Globe seeks more time to resolve row with Nextel

Globe Telecom Inc. has asked for a one-week extension from the National Telecommunications Commission for the company to resolve its interconnection dispute with Nextel Philippines.

The NTC earlier gave Globe Telecom Inc. and Nextel 10 days or until yesterday to come up with a bilateral interconnection agreement or the NTC would impose its own terms.

In the meantime that there is no interconnection agreement, traffic between Globe and Nextel is being routed through a foreign carrier, with the rates based on national long distance (NDD/LEC) charges which is P10 per minute.

Globe vice-president Froilan Castelo said they sent a letter to the NTC yesterday requesting for more time to study NTC’s proposal on the commercial terms of an interconnection agreement in case Globe and Nextel do not come up with their own agreement.

Nextel legal counsel Rejie Jularbal, for his part, said that they are not opposing the proposed extension.

It is not yet clear up to now whether Globe and Nextel can come up with their own bilateral interconnection agreement, but according to Globe officials, the NTC proposed rates are also not acceptable to Nextel.

A few weeks ago, Globe and Nextel ceased interconnection (Globe subscribers cannot call Nextel customers and vice-versa) after negotiations on the commercial terms of their interconnection agreement bogged down.

"We have no problem as far as technical interconnection is concerned. What we cannot agree on is the commercial aspect," Castelo said.

Due to this, Globe and Nextel went to NTC to arbitrate the matter. Under the law, telecommunications companies are required to interconnect and if within a specified period of time, they fail to come up with an interconnection agreement, the government can come in and resolve the matter.

The NTC proposed scheme provides that calls originating from Globe and terminating to Nextel and vice-versa will have a rate of P7.50 per minute. Of this, Globe will get P5 and Nextel, P2.50.

NTC Commissioner Eliseo Rio said that since a call from a Globe subscriber to a Nextel subscriber partly uses the Globe network and that of Nextel, then the call charge should reflect how much the cost of using the network is.

"If Nextel is charging its customers P4 per minute for a call to another Nextel subscriber and Globe charges P9 per minute for a call from a Globe subscriber to another Globe subscriber, then a call from a Nextel subscriber and Globe subscriber should reflect one-half of each network’s cost, which is P2 and P4.50," he said.

The P7.50 per minute is computed based on a P2 Nextel cost plus a P4.50 Globe cost plus a P1 interconnection cost. Of the P7.50, Nextel gets P2 plus half of the interconnection cost which is 50 centavos for a total of P2.50 while Globe gets P4.50 plus 50 centavos or a total of P5.

The amounts are based on the highest subscriber plans being offered by Globe and Nextel, which is the zero plan for Globe-to-Globe calls and Nextel-to-Nextel calls.