Telecom giants Globe and Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) commercially activated their local interconnection service in Davao City last week, thereby, allowing residents in the area to finally call each other without having to pay long distance charges.
“Local interconnection is for the interest of the public. This way, they no longer have to carry the burden of exchange charges for calls made between Globelines and PLDT. Globelines customers can now directly dial the seven-digit telephone number of a PLDT subscriber and vice versa to connect to each other,” said Atty. Froilan M. Castelo, Head of Globe Corporate and Legal Services Group.
Under the previous set-up, Davao City residents have to pay an access charge of P3 per minute to call PLDT from Globelines and vice versa, a situation that is not very consumer friendly,” according to Castelo.
He noted that the lack of interconnection in the past has affected not only the residential subscribers but also the business establishments which rely heavily on local calls.
Castelo said that Globe requested the interconnection in compliance with Republic Act 7925 which mandates the compulsory interconnection of authorized public telecommunications carriers. This way, the government would be able to create a universally accessible and fully-integrated nationwide telecommunications network to encourage more infrastructure investments from the private sector to further benefit the consumers.
Earlier, Globe also commercially activated the local interconnection with Bayan Telecommunications, Inc. in Camarines Sur and Albay as well as with Digital Telecommunications Philippines, Inc. in Ilocos Norte and Albay.
Castelo is confident that with the series of local interconnection agreements being entered into by Globe with other service providers, it will not take long before everyone in the same city or province can enjoy local exchange service without added cost.
“We are always open to negotiations with other local exchange carriers so that we can continue to extend our services to our clients at the most affordable cost,” he said.
