MANILA - DITO Telecommunications on Wednesday said telco giants Globe Telecom and Smart Communications are using the issue on penalties due to fraudulent calls as a ruse to prevent interconnection which is mandated by law.

The Dennis Uy-led third telco earlier filed abuse of dominant position complaints against Globe and Smart with the Philippine Competition Commission, citing a low "grade of service" which prevents its subscribers to call numbers of the two older telco giants.

In response, Globe said DITO should instead pay a fine of P622 million for "interconnect penalties" and failure to address ISR (international simple resale) or fraudulent calls that are using its network.

Smart, in a statement, also called out the third telco for not doing enough to address the fraudulent calls.

Tamano said ISR is not made by DITO, instead these are calls made by fraudulent individuals and global criminal syndicates. He said cybersecurity systems have been put up and that ISR is an industry issue, which is also a concern for both the Globe and Smart.

"I'm really quite surprised because they’re saying the reason we filed this cases is that we can’t pay them these ISR charges. It’s quite laughable, they, by that admission, say that our complaint is valid. They are making interconnection, which is mandated by law subject to our acceptance and payment as a condition to interconnection with us," Tamano said.

"They are really using this as a ruse to prevent interconnection which, when we go down to the subscriber level, is really unfair to the subscriber ," he added.

DITO has so far invested P200 billion, Tamano said.

• DITO files complaint vs Globe, Smart with PH Competition Commission
• 'Suntukan na to': DITO says ready to take on Globe, PLDT as subs hit 10.3 million
• Globe says DITO owes it P622-M in 'interconnect penalties'; third telco disputes claim

Meanwhile, the PCC said it has 10 days to analyze whether or not DITO's complaint has merit.

Globe, on the other hand, urged the National Telecommunications Commission to compel the Uy-led firm to pay the P622 million fine.

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