The Philippines' PLDT has stepped up its efforts to coerce the nation's government and telecom regulator to assign it a portion of the 700-MHz band, threatening to take the regulator and current 700-MHz holder San Miguel to court.
PLDT's head of regulator affairs Ray Espinosa toldFairfax Media that the company plans to start directly petitioning president Benigno Aquino III to reassign the spectrum.
The operator has also indicated that an external legal team is preparing to launch action against regulator NTC, San Miguel and any partners.
These partners could potentially include Australia's Telstra, which is in the final stages of talks over forming a joint venture with San Miguel, a conglomerate that currently holds the rights to most of the 700-MHz band through its telecom units, to set up a mobile joint venture in the market.
PLDT and fellow incumbent mobile operator Globe have been asking the regulator to assign a portion of the 700-MHz band to them to ensure they have adequate spectrum to meet customers' mobile broadband demands.
But the regulator has indicated it is not likely to recall the spectrum as it would need a legitimate reason such as San Miguel not keeping up with its payments.