Telco Companies Wrestle Over Interconnection Issues

On Monday, DITO Telecommunity filed 2 complaints with the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC). The telco company accused its competitors Globe Telecom Inc. and PLDT-Smart of “abuse of their dominant position.” Adel Tamano, DITO’s chief administrative officer, noted how it was difficult for their subscribers to contact Smart and Globe numbers.

“Out of 100 calls that DITO makes to reach out to one of these telcos, only 30 are able to get through,” Tamano explained. “Seventy out of 100 calls are unable to interconnect. For the other one, it’s even worse, out of 100 calls, only 20 are able to interconnect. We are alleging abuse of dominant position. Obviously Globe and Smart are in a dominant position. They’re giants. Our market share for the entire market is at most 5 percent.”

Through the complaints, DITO urges its competitors to comply with government policy of good interconnection among telcos. For its part, the PCC will consult with the National Telecommunication Commission (NTC) to evaluate for possible anti-competitive practices and look into regulatory concerns. It does note, however, that interconnection is essential to allow the exchange of calls and SMS between networks. The PCC is allotting 10 days to decide if the complaints will lead to an investigation.

More recently, however, Globe Telecom Inc. alleged DITO of violating their interconnecting agreement. Globe alleged that fraudulent calls were made through DITO’s network. In this light, the former seeks ₱622 million in compensation from the latter. “An average of 1,000 fraudulent calls—identified as international in origin but masked as local calls—are allowed to pass through DITO’s network to Globe users every day, in violation of interconnect rules,” Globe disclosed.

“Moreover, these unabated illegal activities have placed the interconnection trunks at serious risk of abuse and the resultant undue congestion of the network, to the detriment of the subscribers,” added the prominent telco firm. In response, Tamano affirmed that DITO is “equally a victim of such calls.” He elaborated that DITO has taken the necessary steps to “stop ISR (international simple resale) calls to Globe.”

Sources: ABS CBN, Inquirer