Extelcom seeks more frequencies to provide text messaging, cheaper calls

MANILA, Philippines - Express Telecommunication Co. Inc. has sought government approval to use additional frequencies, a move that will allow the company to provide customers with the popular short message service (or text-messaging) and cheaper mobile voice calls. If approved, the company, also known as Extelcom, will allot the said frequencies to its cellular mobile telephone system (CMTS), the mobile phone operator said in a statement. Although the company has already been allowed to run and manage a CMTS through the analog-based advanced mobile phone system (AMPS), the technology has been rendered obsolete. It intends to migrate to the global system for mobile (GSM) platform which is currently in use. The company’s re-entry into the mobile phone market “will further foster healthy competition" in the industry, Luisito B. Sapiera, Extelcom officer in charge said in a statement. The same statement said that the company already has “a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity (CPCN) for the operation of CMTS and has been assigned the following frequencies: 835-845 MHz, 880-890 MHz, 1720-1725 MHz, and 1815-1820 MHz." It currently seeks the frequency “under the 925-935 megahertz (MGz) band to pair with its existing 880-890 frequency band to offer CMTS," which has already been indicated in its application filed at the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC). The 880-890 MHz band and its paired link, the 925-935 MHz band has been identified by the International Telecommunications Union as suitable for offering CMTS on the GSM platform and will allow Extelcom to optimize voice call services and at the same time allow it to offer short messaging services (SMS), or text, the company said. Once its frequency application secures government approval, Extelcom’s proposed CMTS network “will help trigger the next wave of much-needed changes in the Philippine market, such as substantial acceleration of subscriber penetration, increased competition on prices and service offerings and vast improvement of service quality," the company said, citing Sapiera. “The history of Philippine telecoms regulation has always shown that the entry of new, active players had always redounded to the considerable benefit of the Filipino consumers," Sapiera said, adding that the company is prepared to play a dynamic part in the next phase of the industry’s growth. Extelcom, the Philippines’ first mobile phone company, also issued assurances that it has the “necessary resources to pay all spectrum user fees and supervision and regulation fees, noting that it has completed its financial reorganization and is on schedule with its court-approved rehabilitation plan." “Extelcom strongly believes, and can show, that its current proposals will allow it to make the best use of the relevant frequencies at this time, and can even bring the company out of rehabilitation within a shorter period than contemplated," Sapiera said. - GMANews.TV