Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Globe, Nextel given 10days to work out deal

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 17 Nov 2002 00:55:02 -0500

Globe, Nextel given 10days to work out deal

Posted:8:14 PM (Manila Time) | August 24, 2001
By Abigail L. Ho
Inquirer News Service

THE NATIONAL Telecommunications Commission (NTC) has given Globe Telecom Inc. and Nextel
Communications Philippines Inc. another 10 days to settle their interconnection problems.

"Interconnection is a government mandate. It is for consumers and not for any two
companies," NTC chief Eliseo Rio said in a last-ditch effort yesterday to force Globe and
Nextel to interconnect.

Globe and Nextel failed to reach an agreement over their respective rates within the
period given to them by the NTC.

Nextel insisted that Globe adopt the rates contained in its interconnection agreement with
Smart, but Globe refused.

In the Nextel-Smart agreement, both parties agreed to pay each other 3 pesos a minute for
calls made from Smart cellular phones to Nextel handsets.

Globe wants a 6.50 pesos-2 pesos arrangement, with Nextel paying the higher fee.
Globe argues that Nextel is not a cellular service provider, so it is not entitled to
reciprocal compensation like the one existing between Globe and Smart, which are both
cellular mobile telephone system operators.

"If they want to be treated as a CMTS, they should roll out 400,000 landlines," Globe
assistant vice president Froilan Castelo said in an earlier interview.
Nextel said, however, this was not a fair argument.

"We never claimed to be a CMTS because we're a trunk radio (operator). They can't use the
landline obligation as a reason," Nextel legal division officer Rey Fetalvero said.
Rio then explained that interconnection should be system-neutral and technology-neutral.
"It doesn't matter whether you are trunk radio operator or a CMTS. What's more important
is that your subscribers should be able to call each other," he said.

For the meantime, Globe and Nextel agreed to course their traffic through other operators.

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