Top telecom firms revise revenue sharing arrangement

The country’s two biggest telephone companies have agreed to revise their existing revenue sharing agreement on local calls in the next two years starting January next year.

The Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) and Globe Telecom have agreed in principle on a 50-centavo increase that the Ayala-owned firm will pay PLDT for every minute of call terminating in its network.

Under the existing setup, all cellular mobile telephone system (CMTS) operators (in this case Globe) pay all local exchange carriers (LECs) P2 per minute worth of access charge or the amount paid by a carrier for every minute of call that passes through the network of another carrier.

PLDT and Globe agreed on a P2.50 per minute access charge effective Jan. 1, 2003. "We have agreed in principle to amend our existing revenue sharing agreement from P2 to P2.50," PLDT vice president for carrier relations center Alfredo Carrera said in an interview.

The new rates, Carrera added, will take effect only for a year as both firms have also agreed to increase the CMTS to LEC access charge by another P0.50 per minute to P3 on Jan. 1, 2004.

On the other hand, the current P4.50 per minute access charge being paid by PLDT to Globe will remain unchanged until end of 2003. Carrera, however, disclosed that by Jan. 1, 2004, PLDT will have to reduce its access charge payment to Globe by P0.50 down to P4 per minute.

"There is a glide path towards parity. There will be no changes in the revenue sharing agreement until this will lapse," Carrera said.