Philippine Congress Sets to Revoke 3G Licenses?
December 24, 2006 by Jayvee Fernandez
Filed under 3G, Mobile Monitor
Shocking news on Christmas eve for most of us here in the Philippines. Apparently, local congress, who have a tendency to botch most things up with constant lobbying are calling forth the revoking of 3G licenses for the Philippine telcos with include Globe Telecommunications and SMART Communications.
William Yu, fellow PC Magazine Philippines contributor has the scoop:
“House Resolution 190 and kindred resolutions are just what we need to scare and drive away investors. House Resolution 190 is a prescription for disaster, just what the Philippines needs like a bullet hole in the head,” Globe declared in its position paper.
Aside from 190, two other resolutions on the awarding process of 3G franchises have been filed in Congress.
There was House Resolution 1108 filed by Rep. Danilo E. Suarez which urged the NTC to nullify contracts awarded to 3G networks and instead conduct an open bidding.
A second proposal, HR 01105, was filed by Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano. In it, he called for an investigation on the losses the government might have incurred through the 3G license awarding process.
“If an auction had pushed through, supposing already that applicants were willing to bet on an already exorbitant and unrealistic tripling of the minimum bid at P1.2 million for each band, then total proceeds could only run to P6.5 billion. Then the P15 to P25 billion windfall suggested by some members of Congress in several fora and memoranda is purely speculative and without solid substantiation,” the company said.
All I have to say is that as the worldwide business model for wireless consumer telecommunications, this is a stupid step back if ever this pushes through.
The original article can be viewed here courtesy of the GMA Network.
