MANILA, Philippines - Globe Telecom and Digital Telecom-munications Philippines Inc. (Digitel) are nearing 100-percent interconnection in all areas they serve in the Philippines, following an agreement between the two companies for the linking of their networks in Camarines Norte, Bataan and Sorsogon.
The commercial activation of local interconnection between Globelines, the wireline service of Globe and Digitel in Camarines Norte took effect last Oct. 18. The interconnection initially covers the municipalities of Daet, Labo, Basud, Paracale, Sta. Elena, Talisay and Jose Panganiban. On the other hand, both companies launched local interconnection in Bataan and Sorsogon last Oct. 15. The former covers Orion, Balanga, Limay, Morong, Mariveles, Orani, Dinalupihan, Hermosa, Samal and Abucay, all common areas served by both carriers, while in Sorsogon, the city of Sorsogon and the towns of Bulan, Castilla, Gubat, Casiguran and Donsol now have interconnection between Globelines and Digitel.
“Residents and businesses in each of these provinces can now enjoy local call rates. A Digitel subscriber need not pay long-distance rates to call a Globeline subscriber from the same province, and vice-versa. We are currently working on province-wide local interconnection with Digitel for Camarines Norte, Sorsogon and Bataan and we expect these to be completed by yearend,” Globe national carrier relations head Melvin Santos said.
Globe and Digitel are also mutually pursuing interconnection of their networks in Ilocos Sur, Nueva Vizcaya and Lucena, Quezon.
The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) mandates compulsory interconnection of authorized public telecommunications carriers under Republic Act 7925. This aims to create a universally accessible and fully integrated nationwide telecommunications network to encourage more infrastructure investments from the private sector that benefit consumers.
Globe had earlier said it was bent on more interconnection agreements with rival phone firms as part of efforts to reach more subscribers, to increase the affordability of communications, and to spur development in key growth areas outside the National Capital Region.