While regulators work to speed up the award of the last remaining 3G frequency dormant for five years at the cost of P325 million in foregone revenues to the state, Multi-Media Telephony, Inc. (MTI), also known as Broadband Philippines, which applied for the 3G allocation since 2000, wants the courts to stop the auction.

MTI filed a Supplement to its previous filings with the Court of Appeals for the issuance of a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) against the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) after the latter published the Second 3G Rules for the auction which takes effect next week (March 28, 2010) with a possible award of the 3G allocation by first week of April.

Although MTI was the first applicant on record for a 3G-frequency allocation, NTC denied its application and the company sued the telecom regulators in the Court of Appeals (CA). “We are alarmed that despite the various pending cases related to the proposed 3G Rules before the court, NTC published the Second 3G Rules,” Juan Lorenzo Tañada, MTI Chief for Corporate Services declared.

Without a TRO, NTC can now award the 3G allocation in less than month. But “Why the sudden haste, after the lapse of all these years, when the national elections are just around the corner? It’s in everyone’s best interest for due process to take its course. The last thing we need is a constitutional crisis pitting the executive and judicial branches of government against one another.”

“NTC can just award the 3G licence outright to the sole applicant it deems qualified -- contradicting the spirit of an auction where several participants are necessarily involved,” he maintained. “Under Section 3 of the Second 3G Rules, it is only upon the NTC’s determination that there is more than one qualified applicant, that a bidding process becomes necessary.”

Earlier, the NTC maintained that its planned 3G radio frequency auction is legal and urgent. On the average, the state loses P65 million a year on the spectrum user”s fee, NTC Deputy Commissioner D. Michael Mallillin revealed. “The frequency’s five long years of dormancy is just way too wasteful for such a scarce resource.”

NTC has sought the opinion of the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) regarding the auction and the issuance of the second 3G Rules - Memorandum Circular No. 01-03-2010 - the “Rules on Assignment of the Remaining Allocated 3G Radio Frequency Band”, to govern the proceedings. The OSG stated: “NTC, in the exercise of its administrative discretion, is well within its authority to adopt and issue the proposed Memorandum Circular.”