PLDT to scale down rollout plans due to peers’ opposition

BY KERLYN G. BAUTISTA, BusinessWorld Reporter The country’s largest telco, the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT), will scale down a proposed nationwide expansion after it "inadvertently" included areas that are already covered by its comembers in a large telecom group. Fernando M. Sobierra III, PLDT counsel, said the company will no longer include in its rollout plan six municipalities in Camarines Sur, eight in La Union, two in Batangas, three in Aklan, 13 in Antique, and one in Negros Occidental. The municipalities are already served by LM United Telephone Co., Inc. and Iriga Telephone Co., Inc. for Camarines Sur; Northern Telephone Co., Inc. for La Union; Western Batangas Telephone System, Inc. for Batangas; Panay Telephone Co., Inc. for Aklan and Antique; and Victoria Telephone System, Inc. for Negros Occidental. PLDT is a member of the Philippine Association of Telephone Companies, an organization of private telecom companies that also counts as members telcos that operate in provinces where PLDT will withhold its rollout plans. "Inadvertently included in the aforesaid list [expansion plan] of municipalities, chartered cities, and provinces are some of the areas currently being served by telephone companies who, with the applicant [PLDT] are also members of the [telco association]," Mr. Sobierra said in a filing with the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC). "Due to this inadvertence, applicant respectfully manifest that it is deleting from the areas being applied for in the instant case the areas mentioned," he added. In September, PLDT petitioned the NTC to allow the company to "establish, install, operate and maintain telecommunications services, particularly integrated local telephone service including information and communications technology in certain areas nationwide not yet covered but its CPCNs [certificate of public convenience and necessity] or authorizations." It proposed to complete the rollout program within five years in Kalinga, Apayao, Cagayan, Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya; Quirino, Batangas, Cavite, Marinduque, Occidental Mindoro, Palawan, Quezon, Albay, Camarines Sur, Catanduanes, Masbate, Sorsogon, Iloilo, Negros Occidental, Bohol, Cebu, Negros Oriental, Eastern Samar, Leyte, Nothern Samar, Southern Leyte and Western Samar, Zamboanga del Norte, North Cotobato, Maguindanao, Agusan del Norte, Surigao del Sur, Compostela Valley, Davao del Norte and Sur, Davao Oriental, Sarangani and North Cotobato. The industry group’s president, Eric delos Reyes, said the group did not ask PLDT to delete in its expansion plans the areas that are already covered by its members. Mr. delos Reyes said there are no new partnerships between the group’s members and PLDT.