Smart seeks swift NTC action on Altimax case

MANILA, Philippines -  Wireless services firm Smart Communications filed a motion last Friday urging the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to immediately stop Altimax Broadcasting Co. and Globe Telecom’s “blatant disregard of the law” with respect to the lease and use of frequencies previously assigned to Altimax.

In a nine-page document submitted to the NTC, complainant Smart asked the commission to immediately order Altimax to cease and desist from illegally leasing out the frequencies in question, and Globe subsidiary Innove from the use thereof.

“This is a matter of urgency. There are clear grounds for the Commission to act because Altimax and Globe have flagrantly violated applicable laws and rules of the NTC,” Smart spokesperson Ramon Isberto said.

The NTC scheduled a hearing on this case Tuesday last week based on Smart’s complaint dated Aug. 24, 2011. But the NTC re-scheduled the hearing after both Globe and Altimax filed a motion for postponement, saying they were not ready to respond to Smart’s complaint.

The hearing has been reset to Oct. 19.

“The more the NTC delays this matter, the more Altimax and Globe profit from a resource that is actually the property of the government and the Filipino people. For the sake of the public, the NTC should take prompt action,” Isberto emphasized.

In its motion, Smart argued that Altimax and Innove’s “gross transgressions of the law and barefaced abuse of its privileges” should not be ignored and that “the respondents’ continued defiance of the law is patently detrimental to public interest.”

It also stated that “denial or inaction on the subject motion will serve as a dangerous precedent allowing entities to bypass the established process for the allocation and re-allocation of frequencies which only the state, through the NTC, is authorized to manage and administer.”

In 1998, Altimax was granted a legislative franchise and provisional authorities by the Congress and the NTC respectively, with the condition that they should roll out its MultiChannel Multipoint Distribution System (MMDS) and Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS) services within three years from the effectivity of the legislative franchise and one year from the issuance of its provisional authorities.

Smart said that more than 10 years after the issuance of its permits, Altimax has failed to roll out its MMDS service, adding that if the conditions of its legislative franchise are to be adhered to, Altimax’s legal authority over its frequencies has long been rendered void.

In 2009, Altimax struck a P160-million deal with Globe for the lease and use of the broadcast frequencies in question for Innove’s wireless broadband access service. This, according to Smart, is in itself another violation since the frequencies were used by Globe’s Innove for a purpose different from which it was originally granted.