A TOP official of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Corporation (PLDT) assured the public that unlimited calls and  text services will continue following the acquisition of the controlling share of Digitel Communications owner of the Sun Cellular by the PLDT.

This was the assurance of Atty. Ray Espinosa, director and Head of the Regulatory Franchising during the hearing of the Senate committee on public services yesterday.

Espinosa the services will be stronger as those will cover the entire country since the Sun Cell can now use the advance and extensive infrastracture  of the PLDT.

This developed as Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said there is no need for a congressional approval since the deal was legal and that  it was only a share swap deal.

“There is no need for approval of Congress about the merger of Sun Digitel and PLDT because the  Congress itself that gives license to telecoms franchise, allowed the Digitel to sell the controlling interests of the succeeding company, like the PLDT-Smart,” Enrile told reporters.

The Senate inquiry, headed by Sen, Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr., was conducted based on the resolution of Sen. Joker Arroyo calling the committee to conduct a review in  the exercise of its legislation, of the reported share-swap deal and related transactions of the PLDT and Digitel.

The PLDT bought the Sun cellular Digitel company for P79 billion, but the deal is pending with the National telecommunications Commissio (NTC).

NTC Commissioner Gamaliel Cordova  also assured Revilla that the NTC is still on the stage of resolving the issue of interconnection and vowed to address the problem as early as possible.

Espinosa said that the deal will not only retain the  services of Sun cellular but it will make it stronger with wider and better coverage because Sun will utilize the advanced and extensive infrastructure of PLDT.

He also stated that the deal does not violate the provisions of the two firms’ legislative franchises because it aims to enhance public service.

“The transaction will also accelerate the pace of mobile broadband rollout and lead to the early creation of a robust nationwide mobile broadband backbone.

With combined and optimized networks, it is expected that mobile broadband services will cover 95%  of the country’s geographic areas in 3 years. This is consistent with the PLDT group’s Internet for all’ advocacy and will make mobile broadband widely available and more affordable to all Filipinos nationwide, The transaction is in the public interest. It promotes the public interest. The transaction is pro-consumer, pro masa,” Espinosa said.

During the hearing, Sen. Arroyo clarified that the inquiry was not to investigate the deal but to determine whether the transaction is consistent with or are not  in violation of certain provisions of their respective legislative franchises and that the arrangement would be to the public interest.

He also stated that the deal does not violate the provisions of the two firms’ legislative franchises because it aims to enhance public service.

He added  that “Digitel’s fixed line subscribers will benefit from PLDT’s extensive and enhanced nationwide digital fiber optic network and thus enjoy, amongst others, faster rollout of enhanced wired broadband services.”