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Smart, Globe rapped for collusion after suspension of fee discounts

01/02/2009

The Kilusan Para sa Makabayang Ekonomiya (KME), a coalition of organizations espousing economic nationalism, had accused Smart Communications Inc. and Globe Telecom Inc. of collusion against the public and called for immediate policy changes that would encourage the rise of a serious third player in the nation’s telecommunications industry.

The KME, speaking through its president Jimmy Regalario, urged the House of Representatives to make impartial and fair its probe of the suspension of the call and text promos of the two giant networks at the height of holiday season, saying this is the one of the many ways to erase the public stigma of being a “convenient tool” of the duopoly of Smart and Globe.

“The KME would push for substantial and sustainable policy changes that would open further the telecommunications sector to competition and break the duopoly of the two giant telecommunications firms, which have already earned indecent profits at the expense of the public,” Regalario said in statement in response to the planned January congressional probe “in aid of legislation.”

Regalario was responding to Speaker Prospero Nograles’s statement on the possible holding of a congressional probe, as Smart and Globe were reported to have ignored the public pleas to retain their call and text promos since the country was facing hard times.

Smart and Globe were reported to have cited the possibility of “network abuse” in their purported suspension of the promos, indicating that their current networks could hardly accommodate the traditional rise of call and text messages at the peak of the holiday season.

While expressing reservations on the capacity of the House to conduct fair, impartial and conclusive congressional inquiries, Regalario said the House probe should determine whether the two giant telecommunications firms were making appropriate capital investments to provide the required quality of service to their combined wireless subscribers, which have reached over 50 million this year.