Philippines probes telecoms firms over anti-competition

The Philippines’ antitrust agency said on Friday it will investigate allegations that its major telecoms firms abused their dominant market positions to make it difficult for a China-backed newcomer to connect to their networks.
The agency said it would open a preliminary inquiry into the allegations made by DITO Telecommunity, which launched in 2021 and is 40% owned by China Telecom, against the country’s two other networks, PLDT and Globe Telecom.
DITO and Globe said in separate statements that they welcomed the probe.
DITO, which filed the complaint on Aug. 8, has alleged that its rivals failed to provide “sufficient interconnection capacity”, making it difficult for its subscribers to call the two networks. Globe and PLDT have denied this in previous statements.