Philippines operator NOW Telecom Company has, it seems, lost its licence to operate by order of regulator the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC).
The NTC last week denied NOW’s request for an extension of its nationwide mobile telecommunications system operating authority. This was a unanimous decision based on the alleged failure of the operator to comply with specific regulatory and operational requirements.
NOW had, the ruling said, severely underutilised its assigned spectrum and has accrued more than PHP3.57 billion (about US$62.33 million) of unpaid regulatory fees.
As for rollout, quoted in a number of local news outlets, the NTC said: “After more than five years, the frequency band 3520-3540 MHz is used only in six out of 2,306 base stations (0.26%) or three out of 245 locations (1.22%).”
The operator is also said to have missed an 18-month deadline to infuse additional capital accrued in 2020.
The NTC has dismissed NOW claims that it owes no outstanding supervision and regulation fees (SRF) and spectrum user fees (SUF). A number of rulings have upheld the NTC’s position, including one in March when we reported that the Supreme Court had upheld earlier rulings denying NOW’s petition for a preliminary injunction against the NTC.
The clincher, however, may be that, according to the NTC, NOW Telecom had agreed to conditions in an earlier temporary authorisation, stating that any violation of the set conditions would lead to the recall of assigned frequencies.
NOW has been around in various forms since 1992 when it was known as Satellite Paging Systems Philippines. It officially took the name NOW in 2013. In late 2020 NTC granted NOW a provisional authority and a cellular mobile telephone service license.
The company has apparently claimed that it is now the fourth major telecommunications provider, though this has been disputed by the NTC, which says that it does not have enough frequencies to compete with the major players.
In any case, the mobile industry in the Philippines has long been dominated by a duopoly between Globe Telecom and PLDT, at least until 2021, when Dito Telecommunity was launched.
In late October 2024, Dito Telecommunity reached a creditable 13 million subscribers in the Philippines, though both Globe and PLDT are estimated to have well in excess of 55 million subscribers each. That’s quite a lot of competition for NOW Telecom to address, even without the many legal issues it has had to manage.
