Subject: [NEXTEL-1] NTC asked to block Nextel interconnection with Globe

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 17 Nov 2002 00:50:33 -0500

NTC asked to block Nextel interconnection with Globe
Posted:11:40 PM (Manila Time) | August 03, 2001
By Abigail L. Ho
Inquirer News Service

A LAWMAKER has asked the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to prevent Nextel
Communications Philippines Inc. from interconnecting with Globe Telecommunications Inc.,
alleging that
Nextel has violated the constitution by exceeding the 40-percent limit on foreign
ownership of public
utilities.

In a letter dated July 5, 2001, Leyte Rep. Aniceto Saludo Jr. wrote NTC chief Eliseo Rio
to postpone
any interconnection agreements between Nextel and any other carrier, "at least until the
conclusion of a
congressional investigation".

Saludo had written Rio a month earlier regarding the matter and decided to write to the
NTC chief again
when news came out about Nextel’s pending interconnection with Globe this month.

Rio said the NTC could not block the interconnection because it had yet to prove that
Nextel had violated
the law. "If we stop them because of mere suspicion, the consumers will surely suffer," he
said.

Rio added that the question of ownership of a telecommunications company was not for the
NTC to
resolve. "That is a matter for the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission). The NTC is
only for the
technical side," he said.

He also said interconnection among telecommunications operators was mandated by law and
the NTC
was tasked to implement that mandate.

"We have to implement interconnection as long as there is no final decision regarding the
matter," he said
of the Nextel-Globe link-up.

Lawyer Alan Paguia of the Alan Paguia and Associates law office has also written
Transportation and
Communications Secretary Pantaleon Alvarez accusing Nextel’s local shareholders of being
dummies for
a foreign corporation, Nextel International Inc.

He also wrote that the two shareholders –Gamboa Holdings and Emerald Investments – held
only 20
percent and 28 percent, respectively, of Nextel stock.

Nextel International "has claimed ownership of 59 percent" of Nextel Communications
Philippines capital
stock, the letter said.

Nextel president Emilio Festejo said the question on the company’s ownership had been
raised in
Congress two years ago but nothing came of a congressional investigation.

"We explained our side and the matter just died," he told the INQUIRER in a phone
interview. "They
didn’t pursue it further, until now."

Festejo said he did not know why Nextel was being singled out when many other public
utilities were in a
similar situation.

"We’re confident that we’re abiding by the rules of the government. It’s not in our nature
to do something
illegitimate. We have a lawful business," he said.

from www.inq7.net

URL: http://www.inq7.net/bus/2001/aug/04/text/bus_8-1-p.htm

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