EXECUTIVE ORDER NO. 59
EXECUTIVE ORDER NO. 59 -
PRESCRIBING THE POLICY GUIDELINES FOR COMPULSORY INTERCONNECTION OF
AUTHORIZED PUBLIC TELECOMMUNICATIONS CARRIERS IN ORDER TO CREATE A
UNIVERSALLY ACCESSIBLE AND FULLY INTEGRATED NATIONWIDE
TELECOMMUNICATIONS NETWORK AND THEREBY ENCOURAGE GREATER PRIVATE SECTOR
INVESTMENT IN TELECOMMUNICATIONS
WHEREAS, in recognition of the vital role
of communications in nation-building, it has become the objective of
government to promote advancement in the field of telecommunications
and the expansion of telecommunications services and facilities in all
areas of the Philippines;
WHEREAS, there is a need to enhance effective competition in the
telecommunications industry in order to promote the State policy of
providing the environment for the emergence of communications
structures suitable to the balanced flow of information into, out of,
and across the country;
WHEREAS, there is a need to maximize the use of telecommunications
facilities available and to encourage investment in telecommunications
infrastructure by service providers duly authorized by the National
Telecommunications Commission (NTC);
WHEREAS, there is a need to ensure that all users of the public
telecommunications service have access to all other users of the
service wherever they may be within the Philippines at an acceptable
standard of service and at reasonable cost;
WHEREAS, the much needed advancement in the field of telecommunications
and expansion of telecommunications services and facilities will be
promoted by the effective interconnection of public telecommunications
carriers or service operators;
WHEREAS, the Supreme Court of the Philippines, in the case of
Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. v. The National
Telecommunications Commission [G.R. No. 88404, 18 October 1990, 190
SCRA 717, 734] categorically declared that “Rep. Act No. 6849, or the
Municipal Telephone Act of 1989, approved on 8 February 1990, mandates
interconnection providing as it does that all domestic
telecommunications carriers or utilities . . . shall be interconnected
to the public switch telephone network.”;
WHEREAS, under Executive Order No. 546 dated 23 July 1979, as amended,
the NTC has the power, as the public interest may require, “to
encourage a larger and more effective use of communications facilities,
and to maintain effective competition among private entities whenever
the NTC finds it reasonably feasible”; and
WHEREAS, there is a need to prescribe the consolidated policy
guidelines to implement Rep. Act No. 6849 and Executive Order No. 546,
as amended.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, FIDEL V. RAMOS, President of the Philippines, by
virtue of the powers vested in me by law, do hereby order:
Section 1. The NTC shall expedite the interconnection
of all NTC authorized public telecommunications carriers into a
universally accessible and fully integrated nationwide
telecommunications network for the benefit of the public.
Sec. 2. Interconnection between NTC authorized
public telecommunications carriers shall be compulsory. Interconnection
shall mean the linkage, by wire, radio, satellite or other means, of
two or more existing telecommunications carriers or operators with one
another for the purpose of allowing or enabling the subscribers of one
carrier or operator to access or reach the subscribers of the other
carriers or operators.
Sec. 3. Interconnection shall be established and
maintained at such point or points of connections, preferably at the
local exchanges level and at the junction side of trunk exchanges as
are required within a reasonable time frame and shall be for sufficient
capacity and in sufficient number to enable messages conveyed or to be
conveyed to conveniently meet all reasonable traffic demands for
conveyance of messages between the system of the parties involved in
the interconnection.
Sec. 4. Interconnection shall permit the customer
of either party freedom of choice on whose system the customer wishes
his call to be routed regardless which system provides the exchange
line connecting to the local exchange. Such a choice may be done
initially though the use of district carrier access code assigned to
the relevant connectable system and ultimately, as the local exchange
providers upgrade to stored-program-controlled (SPC) exchanges,
comparatively efficient interconnect (CEI) or equal access
pre-programmed option.
Sec. 5. Interconnection shall be mandatory with
regard to connecting other telecommunications services such as but not
limited to value-added services of radio paging, trunking radio, store
and forward systems of facsimile or messaging (voice or data), packet
switching (including the conveyance of messages which have been or are
to be transmitted or received at such points of connection),
information and other services as the NTC may determine to be in the
interest of the public and in the attainment of the objective of a
universally accessible, fully integrated nationwide telecommunications
network.
Sec. 6. Interconnection shall be negotiated and
effected through bilateral negotiations between the parties involved
subject to certain technical/operational and traffic settlement rules
to be promulgated by the NTC; Provided, that if the parties fail to
reach an agreement within ninety (90) days from date of notice to the
NTC and the other party of the request to negotiable, the NTC shall, on
application of any of the parties involved, determine the terms and
conditions that the parties have not agreed upon but which appears to
the NTC to be reasonably necessary to effect a workable and equitable
interconnection and traffic settlement.
Sec. 7. Interconnection among public
communications carriers shall be effected in such a manner that permits
re-routing of calls from an international gateway operator which is
rendered inoperative, whether in whole or in part, in the event of
strikes, lock-outs, disasters, calamities and similar causes, to
another international gateway operator not so effected. A public
telecommunications carrier shall be allowed such permits to operate an
international gateway as may be necessary to service its own network
requirements; Provided, that its subsidiaries shall not be given a
permit to operate another international gateway.
Sec. 8. In prescribing the applicable
technical/operational and traffic settlement rules, the NTC shall
consider the following:
8.1
The technical/operational rules should conform with the relevant
recommendations of the Consultative Committee on International
Telegraph and Telephone (CCITT) and the International
Telecommunications Union (ITU).
8.2 For
traffic settlement rules:
(a)
Either meet-on-the-air and/or midpoint circuit interconnection between
parties;
(b) For local
exchange point of interconnection, settlement shall be on the basis of
volume of traffic on the local connection based on per minute with day
and night rate differential. In case of store and forward services for
facsimile, data and voice mail, settlement shall be on the basis of
equivalent monthly trunk line charges as generally charged by the local
exchange carrier (LEC) to its customer owning their own PABX;
(c) For
junction exchange point of interconnection, settlement shall be on the
basis of volume of traffic carried over:
(i)
short haul connection not exceeding 150 kilometers; and
(ii) long haul
connection exceeding 150 kilometers.
Similarly, a per minute rate
shall be evolved with day and night differential. The determination of
the per minute rate is based on the principle of recognizing recovery
of the toll related cost and fair return of the investment of the
facilities employed in making the toll call exchange between the
system.
(d)
Subsidies which shall be approved on the basis of the sound public
policy shall be allowed in two (2) ways:
(i)
for operator assisted calls — an operator sur-charge kept by the system
that employs the operator; and
(ii) access
charge — the principle of access charge is an assistance to the
unprofitable rural telephone development, remote pay stations, etc.,
thereby assuring the universal service obligation of the PSTN
operators. The introduction of the access charge may result in a charge
that will be passed on to the subscribers of the PSTN.
Sec. 9. Interconnection shall at all times satisfy
the requirements of effective competition and shall be effected in a
non-discriminatory manner.
Sec. 10. The Points of Connection (PC) between
public telecommunications carriers shall be defined by the NTC, and the
apportionment of costs and division of revenues resulting from
interconnection of telecommunications networks shall be approved or
prescribed by the NTC.
Sec. 11. Interconnecting parties shall share the
cost of interconnection in accordance with their respective
responsibilities, maintain and operate their facilities, and comply
with their obligations as agreed upon and approved by the NTC, or as
prescribed by the NTC.
Sec. 12. Interconnection and revenue-sharing
agreements approved or prescribed by the NTC ,may be revoked, revised,
or amended as the NTC deems fit in the interest of the public service.
Sec. 13. In the implementation of this Executive
Order, the NTC may, after due notice and hearing, impose the following
penalties in case of violation of any of the provisions
hereof:
13.1.
Imposition of such administrative fines, penalties and sanctions as may
be allowed or prescribed by existing laws;
13.2.
Suspension of further action on all pending and future applications for
permits, licenses or authorizations of the violating carrier or
operator and in which particular case, the NTC shall be exempted from
compliance with the provisions of Executive Order No. 26 dated 7
October 1992 on the period for the disposition of cases or matters
pending before it;
13.3. With the
approval of the President, directive to the appropriate government
financial or lending institutions to withhold the releases on any loan
or credit accommodation which the violating carrier or operator may
have with them;
13.4.
Disqualification of the employees, officers or directors of the
violating carrier or operator from being employed in any enterprise or
entity under the supervision of the NTC; and
13.5. In
appropriate cases, suspension of the authorized rates for any service
or services of the violating carrier or operator without disruption of
its services to the public.
Sec. 14. The NTC is directed to promulgate the
implementing rules to this Executive Order within ninety (90) days from
the date of effectivity hereof.
Sec. 15. All executive orders, administrative
orders, and other issuances, inconsistent herewith are hereby repealed,
modified or amended accordingly.
Sec. 16. This Executive Order shall take effect
immediately.
DONE in the City of Manila,
this 24th day of February in the year of Our Lord, Nineteen Hundred and
Ninety-Three.
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Since 19.07.98.