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Globe unit penalized for unsatisfactory service(Business World (Philippines) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) yesterday slapped Globe Telecom, Inc. subsidiary Innove Communications, Inc. with a P10,400 fine for providing poor internet services to a Makati firm. In a decision, the NTC ruled that Innove, the company which sells the Internet access service under the brand name GlobeQuest, was administratively liable for delivering services two times slower than what it had promised Quantamatrix, Inc. "They guaranteed me 128 kilobytes per second (kbps) but didn't follow through on their commitment. I had a one year contract with GlobeQuest and they breached the agreement," Quantamatrix General Manager Peter Darling was quoted as saying in his official complaint at the NTC. Mr. Darling documented instances within the period of two months in 2005 when his company's GlobleQuest Internet speed ranged only from 55 to 84 kbps. He said he signed up for the service in June that year and had problems with it by August. Quantamatrix is a start-up company that sells stocks to the international market using voice-over-internet protocol (VoIP). Because of the slow connection, the VoIP phone lines were choppy and work was thus impeded, said Mr. Darling. The NTC fined Innove P200 for each day it had failed to act on Mr. Darling's complaint. Counsel for Innove. Manuel P. Casino declined to comment but said the company would be appealing the decision. NTC reiterated that internet services providers at the minimum should maintain 99% network/system availability and 98.5% bandwidth (data capacity). The memorandum on service performance standards also says that reported faults must be fixed or acted upon within 48 hours. Mr. Darling had also filed a complaint for fraud - he says Innove asked him to buy new hardware to improve the service, which changed nothing - but the NTC recommended he file a civil suit to recover P90,000 in claimed damages. Copyright 2007 Business World Publishing Corporation, Source: The Financial Times Limited |