Court of Appeals awards last 3G frequency to Bayan | News | Techie.com.ph
6:44 PM | Wednesday | 08 September 2010

In more serious news, the Court of Appeals (CA) has sided with Bayan Telecommunications in its plea to bar the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) from auctioning off the last remaining 3G frequency and to award it to them instead. Wow, that was a mouthful.

In its ruling, the CA said that the NTC committed "grave error" in denying Bayan a 3G license and that "Bayan deserves the assignment of the last unassigned 3G frequency band."

See, back in 2005, the NTC outed Memorandum Circular No. 07-08-2005. MC 07-08-2005, in layman's terms, laid down the rules for awarding 3G frequencies in the country. It clearly stated that applicants will be judged based on track record, roll-out commitments, and rates to be charged from users.

Five slots were available, but only four operators were awarded. The lucky winners were Smart, Globe, Digitel (Sun), and CURE (Red Mobile). Bayantel came in fifth but "fell short" of the criteria and was thus disqualified.

Needless to say Bayantel contested this stating that the NTC adopted a 30-point rating system and a 20-point qualification threshold which were not included in the original MC 07-08-2005 without any of the applicants being informed.

Under the Administrative Code of the Philippines, this is illegal. Any such changes should be published in a newspaper of general circulation and a copy must be furnished to the UP Law Center before policies can have the force and effect of law. For the record, we resent not having the phrase "websites of general circulation" included into the mix.

So now that Bayan is poised to finally enter the 3G era, what should we expect? Stiffer competition, of course. They're no slouches and they know how to sell their stuff and ultimately, put up a fight. They have competitive packages and plans, and they have the lovably spunky Lola Techie on their side.