DOTC urges telcos to widen operations

Transportation and Communication Secretary Leandro Mendoza urged yesterday cellphone companies to nurture healthy competition among themselves as the market "is not yet congested and there is a large room for expansion in the industry."

Mendoza noted that there should be no animosity among mobile phone providers because the telecommunications sector has not yet been fully explored.

"The total number of subscribers has yet to reach the 12-million mark or roughly 15 percent of our population and almost equal to the number of land lines nationwide," he said

Mendoza earlier called on five local providers in the country to expand their operations by putting up more cell sites, especially in far-flung areas in Mindanao.

He said that the cellular phones could greatly help boost economic growth in the provinces because it would be easier for residents there to sell their wares.

He cited, for instance, the farmers and fishermen who could earn more if they could communicate directly with buyers and skip the middlemen who usually rake in more profits.

Mendoza’s spokesman Thompson Lantion has expressed dismay over the "unprofessional" practice of some cellphone firms of enticing subscribers to change their service providers through "give-away" terms.

"Instead of spending money fighting one another commercially, there cellular telephone service providers should rather spend their money building more cell sites," Lantion said.

Lantion said that cellphone companies could still meet the coverage targets they committed if they only expand their operation.

"Instead of bickering, cellular service providers could very well put their financial resources and profits to better use by investing these in establishing new cell sites to serve both urban and rural subscribers," he added.