‘(Its) provisional authority to install, operate and maintain a nationwide mobile telecommunications system, offer services and to charge rates therefore, with the clarification that said authority is not specific to 3G is hereby deemed inoperative.’
NOW Telecom, a subsidiary of listed NOW Corp., can no longer operate a nationwide mobile telecommunications system after the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) denied its request to extend its provisional authority, declaring it “inoperative.”
The NTC said NOW Telecom failed to meet key regulatory and operational requirements, citing a lack of network rollout, underutilized spectrum, and P3.57 billion in unpaid regulatory fees.
“(Its) provisional authority to install, operate and maintain a nationwide mobile telecommunications system, offer services and to charge rates therefore, with the clarification that said authority is not specific to 3G is hereby deemed inoperative in view of its expiration/non-extension of its provisional authority,” the NTC stated in a 19 March order.
The regulator dismissed NOW Telecom’s claim that it owed no supervision and regulation fees or spectrum user fees, pointing to Supreme Court rulings affirming the NTC’s authority to collect them.
“As of 31 December 2024, NOW Telecom Company Inc./NEXT Mobile Inc. still has an Outstanding SRF in the total amount of P3,578,211,841.22,” the NTC said, detailing P1.33 billion in principal and P2.24 billion in penalties.
The NTC also found NOW Telecom’s network rollout severely lacking. Of the 2,306 base stations it committed to build under its 2017 rollout plan, only six were installed, all in Metro Manila, and none were transmitting on the assigned frequency.
“After more than five years, the frequency band 3520-3540 MHz is used only in 6 out of 2,306 base stations (0.26 percent) or 3 out of 245 locations (1.22 percent),” the order said.
The company also failed to infuse the P1.9 billion in additional capital required within 18 months of the September 2020 order.
Citing Republic Act 7925 and Commonwealth Act 146, as amended by Republic Act 11659, the NTC reiterated its authority to suspend, revoke, or withhold certificates of public convenience when a provider fails to meet regulatory standards.
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