Bayan to Continue to Protest at Denial of 3G License

The Philippines based Bayan Telecommunications is to ask the Court of Appeals to reconsider its recent decision that the telecoms regulator was correct in denying the company a 3G license. The company has been seeking to overturn the decision in the courts ever since its application was rejected in 2005.

The regulator, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) used a points based scoring system to award the licenses. Bayan has argued that the the process of awarding the licenses was flawed as it argues that the methodology of the points system was not made clear in the tender documents. The regulator awarded the licenses to those operators who secured above 20 points on a 30-point system. Bayan scored 18.5 points.

"In the last two years, we have demonstrated our capability by to roll out a 3G compliant network with our CDMA-based wireless landline service which disrupted and transformed the voice calling market today," Bayan chief executive consultant Tunde Fafunwa said.

"The faulty scoring system resulted in an award of a 3G license to Connectivity Unlimited Resource Enterprise Inc. (CURE), a new entity with no track record and which was eventually sold to an entity controlled by one of 3G license awardees," the company added.

The other 3G license holders are Smart Communications, Globe Telcom and Digitel Mobile Philippines. Connectivity Unlimited Resources Enterprise (CURE) was later brought by Smart Communications.

The regulator has also had consultations on awarding a fifth 3G license, although a court order currently blocks any such tender being carried out.

Posted to the site on 24th August 2009