Dito Telecommunity has filed cases with the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) arguing that its rivals Globe Telecom and Smart Communications abused their market dominance.
The operator’s advent to the market broke a long-held duopoly between Smart and Globe, but its chief administrative officer Adel Tamano told local media that Dito had no choice but to file the cases given the state of interconnection issues between the parties.
“As of right now the state of interconnection between us and Smart and Globe is we are actually in a state of non-connection. This is very critical,” said Tamano. He noted that under National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) guidelines, 99% of calls should interconnect to the rival networks, but without naming the operators he claimed that only 30% of Dito’s calls were connecting to one of the networks, and just 20% to the other.
GMA News Online reported that neither Globe nor Smart had received the complaint. In separate statements, the operators affirmed their support for fair competition in the telecom sector. However, Tamano countered that Dito has had interconnection difficulties with both operators since it started increasing its subscriber base following its launch in 2021.
Dito Telecom cited Section 15 of the Philippine Competition Act (PCA) which is in place to ensure that no party or parties can engage in activity that could “substantially prevent, restrict, or lessen competition.”
Tamano said: “We’re really doing this for our subscribers and that’s why the decision was made that we’re not going to put a number. We’re not here to earn money from them. Let us compete in a fair way.”
He noted that Dito has been trying to mediate with Globe and Smart via the NTC since 2021, arguing that under Philippines law, fair competition mandates were in place when the operator launched that year.
The PCC confirmed that it had received the complaints and that they were under evaluation by its Competition Enforcement Office (CEO), with a decision to be reached within 10 days on whether the complaint will be given due course. If so, the CEO will investigate the allegations and file a State of Objections if it finds the accused to be at fault.
