PT&T, who claimed that Smart has been overcharging on its interconnect fees for the past ten years, brought its case to the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC).

Smart countered that this is merely a collection dispute. PT&T still owes them P2,245,625.83 for interconnect charges until August 2005 and NTC intervention is not needed.

Smart never deviated from the agreed commercial terms and conditions with PT&T, Atty. Roy Ibay, industry relations manager for the Smart wholesale business group stressed.

"Smart has been consistent in applying computations based on the commercial terms and conditions mutually agreed upon by both parties," he explained. "We have never overcharged PT&T on its outbound calls to Smart nor underpaid on the inbound access charges to PT&T."

PT&T should not have brought in the NTC and called for a non-discriminatory application of rates as the Smart-PT&T-CAPWIRE Tri-partite Agreement does not fall under this case, he stressed.

In May 2003, PT&T acknowledged its obligation and agreed to pay Smart P11.1 million in very clear installment terms over a definite period of time.

In April 2005, PT&T deliberately stopped its installment payments. Contrary to its claim, Smart, the aggrieved party in the transaction, has the right to file a simple collection case against PT&T.

As such, PT&T’s case should be treated as a collection dispute and taken to the regular courts, Atty. Ibay reiterated.

"Our official records reflect that PT&T initially owed SMART a total of P72.38 million for the period of October 1996 to December 1998 as opposed to PT&T’s claims of P48.54 million," he revealed.

In 1999, as a consideration to the financial condition of PT&T, SMART agreed to accept PT&T’s request that we use their records (P48.54 million) on the condition that PT&T would be able to pay until May 2001.

However, PT&T’s payments until March 2001 amounted to only P13.8 million. Smart would have reverted to its original billing figures based on the conditions of the agreement but still gave PT&T another chance to settle.

In 2003, through a tripartite offsetting agreement among Smart/ Piltel and PT&T/ Capwire, PT&T’s outstanding account was reduced to P11.11 million. Settlement rates per minute would also be revised once the balance reaches certain milestone amounts. To help PT&T, Smart even continued sending outbound traffic through PT&T’s sister firm, Capwire, although there were other lower-priced routes available at that time.

The two telcos agreed on a restructured payment schedule of P150,000/ month starting January 2004. However, after settling only P2.25 million, PT&T again stopped its payments to Smart on April 2005.

Nevertheless, Smart even increased PT&T’s inbound share to P2.00 per minute in April 2005. "Smart has been giving PT&T a lot of leeway so they would be able to settle their outstanding accounts," Atty. Ibay concluded.