Smart asks NTC to junk Globe complaint

Leading wireless operator Smart Communications has asked the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to dismiss a complaint filed by arch-rival Globe Telecom against Smart’s All Day Texting 258 Call and Text Promo, which according to Smart is totally baseless.

Smart also insisted that it is not engaged in unfair and discriminatory practices in any promotional offerings, predatory pricing, or combination in restraint of trade.

The wholly owned mobile phone subsidiary of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) group emphasized that Globe’s complaint against Smart and Pilipino Telephone Inc. (Piltel) are "obviously ridiculous attempts to put square pegs into round holes.

Smart added that the prayer of Globe to stop this promo, if granted by the NTC, will ultimately inflict damage, and is prejudicial, to the interest of Smart and Piltel subscribers who will have to pay a higher fee.

"Simply stated, what Globe would want the NTC to do is to punish the subscribers of Smart and Piltel because Globe, by its current moves undertaken out of sheer desperation, is admitting that it cannot provide the same level of quality service to its own subscribers which Smart and Piltel are providing to their subscribers," Smart said.

It also emphasized that Globe has opted to become a ‘cry baby’ and a perennial whiner rather than fighting it out in the market.

Globe earlier called for the revocation of the congressional franchise given to Piltel as well as all authorizations and frequencies granted to the latter for non-operation or non-use.

The Ayala-owned mobile operator said Piltel and Smart are still two different carriers with different congressional franchises and NTC authorizations and frequencies.

Smart’s 258 unlimited promo applies to text messages sent from one Smart subscriber to another as well as messages from a Smart to a Piltel subscriber, Piltel to Piltel, and Piltel to Smart, which means that Smart and Piltel do not pay text access charges to each other, unlike those paid to other networks like Globe and Sun Cellular. 

Since the promotional scheme was introduced without giving all other mobile carriers the opportunity to at least agree to be a part of it, the promo smacks then of discrimination, as well as cutthroat competition, Globe stressed.

Smart, in its earlier comment to Globe’s complaint filed with the NTC, has argued that there is no need for "interconnection" between Piltel and Smart as the former merely uses the network of Smart.