The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) denied NOW Telecom Company Inc.’s request for an extension of its nationwide mobile telecommunications system operating authority, citing the company’s failure to meet regulatory and operational standards.
The NTC, in a unanimous decision, ruled that NOW Telecom failed to comply with critical regulatory and operational requirements, including the rollout of infrastructure, severe underutilization of spectrum and more than P3.57 billion in unpaid regulatory fees.
“[NOW Telecom’s] provisional authority to install, operate and maintain a nationwide mobile telecommunications system, offer services and to charge rates therefor, 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 said in a 45-page order dated March 19, 2024.
The NTC held that its earlier rulings—specifically those dated Sept. 14, 2020, and Dec. 4, 2020—had attained finality, barring the company from reasserting the same claims.
It also dismissed NOW Telecom’s claims that it owed no outstanding supervision and regulation fees (SRF) and spectrum user fees (SUF), citing Supreme Court rulings that upheld the NTC’s imposition of said fees.
“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, broken down into P1.33 billion in principal and P2.24 billion in penalties.
The NTC noted that the high tribunal also affirmed NOW Telecom’s disqualification from 3G frequency allocation.
Contrary to its claims, NTC said NOW Telecom failed to pay even the uncontested portion of its regulatory fees for 2022, 2023 and 2024.
The company earlier accepted a condition in its provisional authority that “any violation of the conditions set forth by the Commission shall automatically result in the recall of the frequencies assigned.”
Operationally, the NTC said it found NOW Telecom’s network rollout to be grossly deficient.