Ang Laban Ngayon : Anti-Monopoly in Telecommunication

SLaM launches its advocacy in the light of the most obvious monopoly that affects nine out of 10 Filipinos today, the monopoly in the telecommunications industry in the Philippines. Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT)-Smart Communications has merged with Digital Telecommunications Philippines, Inc.-Sun Cellular to effectively control 84% of the telecommunication frequencies of the country. The telecommunication frequency is a limited public resource that is supposedly strictly regulated by the government, to serve and benefit the people, more than the corporate interests.

With such dominance, PLDT can eventually force all competition out of the playing field and become the sole holder of all telecom frequencies in the Philippines. Because of the absence of competition and market pressure to its products and services, this emerging monopoly of PLDT-Smart and Digitel-Sun will bring nightmare to consumers just like in the old days of PLDT monopoly during the Marcos regime.

SLaM demands that the government, particularly the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), correct this monopoly by regulating PLDT's access to the telecom frequencies to less than 50% of this public domain. This would open the remaining pie to other market players and re-establish a fair market to ultimately benefit the interest of the consumers.

SLaM demands that the government, particularly the NTC, effectively implement full, authentic interconnection among all telecom service providers. Without such interconnection, PLDT employs monopolistic control over competitors to the detriment of the general consumer.

SLaM calls on the people to participate in a united call to action. This call to action loudly asserts that true, authentic power and authority comes from the people and is accorded by the people to whomever they freely choose.