NTC must protect competition

I did something momentous as 2007 ended. I gave up my extra PLDT phone line. I should have given it up a long time ago but I just couldn’t part with it. There must have been this subconscious feeling in me that viewed that phone like a cherished trophy because it took me so long to get it. It is stupid in this new era of cell phones and easy connectivity but what can I say, I am a child of the 50s.

For a while I justified having that extra PLDT phone line on the DSL connected through it. I could have shifted the DSL to the other line (in my wife’s name) but I did nothing, maybe because of that subconscious attachment… One day, I finally gave up on PLDT’s DSL service in my neighborhood (legacy copper lines equals bad surfing experience) and signed on another telco. I simply can’t pay an extra thousand a month for sentiment.

My wife went to the PLDT business office and returned the phone and DSL equipment as we served PLDT our notice of disconnection. PLDT continued to bill us four months after, threatening to disconnect our disconnected phone. Silly… this phone company!

My wife went back to the business office to ask what’s going on. She was told to ignore the billing and the disconnection notice. They blamed their less than adequate accounting and computerized billing system. I can understand. I gave up on their customer service too. Sometimes, even an e-mailed complaint to MVP provided no relief. PLDT took me for granted so it lost me as a customer. I now have a choice and I exercised it.

I relate this little personal story to drive the point that it is great to live in this day when there are choices. Today’s generation do not know how lucky they are that they can no longer be abused by service providers like PLDT who in the past, made us wait decades just to have an ordinary land line.

But let me qualify that… every time I write about PLDT’s service, I get inundated with complaints. It seems, PLDT still abuses customers and that’s because it is big and there are times when a customer’s ability to exercise choice isn’t as apparent. PLDT’s size simply intimidates.

Still, many of us specially here in Metro Manila, now want to believe that the telco business has become highly competitive. In reality, it is less competitive than we think. PLDT and Smart, its cell phone unit, can and do bully competitors. They can and will crush competitors if NTC allows them. They can screw up smaller rivals by refusing to provide the right quality of interconnection needed. Or, they can use the regulatory agency to allow them to get an unfair advantage.

I was for instance, surprised to learn that NTC allowed Piltel (PLDT’s original cell phone unit) to quietly convert its analog license into 3G instead of requiring Piltel to return it. Thus, even before Smart bought CURE, it already had two 3G licenses with their corresponding sets of frequencies. Now, Smart will have 3 against 1 each for Globe and Sun. Talk of an Unlevel Playing Field!

It would thus seem that NTC, as the industry’s regulator, is failing to regulate. It is allowing what looks like a competitive market to deteriorate into a near monopoly again for PLDT. Actually, if the NTC is naturally inclined to be unfair, it should tilt the balance in favor of the smaller competitors of PLDT because as the long time monopoly, PLDT already enjoys established advantages. The competitors need time to catch up to develop their capabilities and grow their markets to provide real competition.

It is a constant battle and hopefully, the NTC understands the importance of supporting competition in our telco market. If given half a chance, PLDT and Smart would do their best to re-establish monopoly regimes. They tried to do it in the Fort Bonifacio area and almost succeeded.

Luckily, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez ruled that the Constitution prohibits any carrier from claiming exclusivity in the operation of public utilities within any given service area. Gonzalez reiterated that “the Global City is a ‘free zone’ within which all enfranchised public telecommunications entities so authorized by the NTC can provide high-speed networks and communications connectivity.”

Hopefully, MVP, who pays lip service to the need for a competitive environment, accepts the Gonzalez ruling as it is. The wonders of the digital world can thrive best and serve us best in a competitive environment. The NTC must make sure freedom of choice in the telecom industry will never be curtailed because of its failure to protect meaningful competition in a level playing field.

It would be quite tragic if my grandchildren end up experiencing what I experienced when I was growing up… a time when there was no choice but to suffer the only telco player there was.

Mr. Ongpin responds

 Dear Boo… I am presently in Europe but my secretary, as she normally does because your column is only one of the few I find worthwhile reading, forwarded today’s column to me.

While you did have some kind words to say about me for which I thank you, you also make some nasty inferences re my role in CURE. Let me just simply state that it would have been foolhardy, nay suicidal, for me to have established CURE and applied for a 3G license had I not had a strong partner in place. No one in his right mind would contemplate competing with the giants that are Smart and Globe without the necessary technical and financial backing from a major international mobile telephone company.

Regrettably, early this year, my erstwhile partner, who for obvious reasons must remain unnamed, decided to withdraw from the project principally because of “political noise” considerations and also valid commercial reasons since, as we all know, the promised potential of 3G has not been realized as quickly as expected.

I had therefore no choice but to do the only sensible thing, which was to sell the company. Fortunately, while I did not make any money, I also did not lose money. I guess you can’t win them all!

Finally, thanks for your kind words regarding Tagaytay Highlands. I spent 10 years of my life working on it and it will always be close to my heart.

All the best.

Bobby

(Boo C’s note: Out of respect for Mr. Ongpin, I will not make any comments on his letter other than to take exception to the perception that I had been harsh in my observations. I will leave it to the readers to decide if he has adequately responded to the points I raised last Monday.)

The ‘F’ word

Gilbert Jose forwarded this one.

I had a bunch of Canadian dollars I needed to exchange, so I went to the currency exchange window at the local bank. Short line. Just one lady in front of me. . . an Asian lady who was trying to exchange yen for dollars and she was a little irritated.

She asked the teller, “Why it change?? Yesterday, I get two hunat dolla fo yen. Today I get hunat eighty?? Why it change?”

The teller shrugged his shoulders and said, “Fluctuations.”

The Asian lady says, “Fluc you white people, too!”

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]