PLDT completing migration of Digitel subscribers

MANILA, Philippines - Dominant carrier Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) is completing the migration of the landline subscribers of Digital Telecommunications of the Philippines Inc. (Digitel) that was acquired two years ago and is also resolving its interconnection issues with Ayala-owned Globe Telecom Inc.

PLDT spokesperson Ramon Isberto said the company’s internal requirements have grown considerably in the past year as it is currently migrating Digitel’s landline subscribers in its franchise areas in northern, central and southern Luzon to PLDT.

Isberto pointed out that Digitel’s landline network is at its end-of-life stage and would not be able to properly service its customers moving forward.

“This program is a matter of great urgency for us because we need to ensure that Digitel subscribers will not suffer outages as a result of equipment failures. PLDT must obviously give this program the highest priority in terms of its manpower and resources,” he stressed.

According to him, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) has given the company the green light to pursue the migration program.

“The NTC is fully aware of the importance of this undertaking because we have sought and obtained NTC approvals at various phases of the migration program,” he added.

NTC approved the sale of the 51.55-percent stake of businessman John L. Gokongwei Jr. in Digitel to the PLDT Group for P69.2 billion in 2011.

Aside from completing the migration program for Digitel landline subscribers, Isberto said PLDT is also pursuing its interconnection with Globe.

“Having said that, I must also point out that interconnection with Globe is not the only thing we are doing.  The same manpower and technical resources used for interconnection are also being used to attend to the needs of our own subscribers, which we must obviously address,” he said.

Globe earlier asked NTC to step into the delays in the interconnection with PLDT as only 11 out of the 32 candidate areas for local interconnection have been accommodated by the dominant carrier for activation.

In a letter to NTC commissioner Gamaliel Cordoba, Globe head of National Carrier Relations Division Melvin Santos urged the regulator to urgently intervene and compel PLDT to fulfill its local interconnection commitments with Globe/Innove especially in the provinces. 

“Local interconnection with PLDT has been pending for years now despite orders from the NTC and public inconvenience. Such inaction and neglect of NTC rules by PLDT betray their apparent lack of serious regard for the mandatory character of interconnection to the detriment of public service,” Santos said. 

Globe initiated discussions for local interconnection with PLDT in 2006 in view of the approval for nationwide roll-out granted by the NTC to Innove Communications Inc. In 2007, it formalized its request for local interconnection with PLDT in compliance with existing laws and rules prescribed by the regulator.