The Philippine Online Chronicles

NTC approves PLDT-Digitel merger

The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) approved this week the merger of the country’s two major telcos, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co.(PLDT) and Digital Telecommunication Philippines Inc. (Digitel).

After 90 days of comprehensive study and evaluation of the deal, NTC Commissioner Gamaliel Cordoba said the regulator has approved the sale and transfer to PLDT of initially about 51.55 percent equity in Digitel in accordance with Section 20 of the Public Services Act (CA 146).

NTC required PLDT and Digitel to "continue to provide high quality service to the subscribers/users."

Manny V. Pangilinan's PLDT successfully completed the acquisition of a majority stake in JG Summit-led Digitel. The share-swap transaction is valued at about P69.2 billion for PLDT's purchase of 51.55% stake in Digitel.

Both PLDT and JG Summit welcomed the NTC's decision. PLDT Chairman Pangilinan said in a statement that “PLDT will continue to provide its consumers with the best value in terms of price, quality and range of products and services and we have committed to continue offering “unlimited” type of services in fulfillment of this promise. In addition, Sun subscribers can benefit from PLDT’s extensive infrastructure and varied service offerings”.

JG Summit chairman James L. Go said, "the transaction ensures that Digitel remains in good hands. Together, the PLDT-Digitel Group will be well-positioned to compete not only with formidable existing competitors but with well-funded new entrants as well".

Globe Telecommunications also reportedly welcomed the deal.

But a legislator said the merger of the first and third largest telcos will lead to a monopoly. Bayan Muna representative Teddy Casiño said they plan to file motion for certiorari with injunction and a temporary restraining order (TRO) with the Supreme Court (SC).

“We are studying to file a motion...considering that the SC issued a ruling declaring the ownership of PLDT unconstitutional due to the fact that the majority shares of the company is foreign-owned,” Casiño said in a report. Casiño is one of the main oppositors to the PLDT-Digitel merger docketed as NTC Case No. 2011-072.

The militant lawmaker cited three reasons to oppose the merger: 1) The PLDT- Digitel merger creates or tends to create a monopoly and therefore unconstitutional and violates Section 19, Art. XII of the 1987 Constitution that states: The State shall regulate or prohibit monopolies when the public interest so requires. No combinations in restraint of trade or unfair competition shall be allowed; 2) The PLDT-Digitel merger violates the franchises awarded by Congress to Digitel Telecommunications and Digitel Mobile -- franchises that were designed to prevent monopolies and 3) NTC should be sanctioned for its go-ahead for PLDT to gobble up Digitel since the approval was done in bad faith because Congress is in recess.

But Senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr., chair of the Senate Public Services committee said NTC's approval of the share swap is “only proper considering that our country has one of the highest interconnection rates in the Asia Pacific region.”

Revilla urged NTC to make sure that the prerequisites it had set regarding the share-swap deal will be fully complied with by both companies.

Raves and rants about the iPhone 4S

Two weeks after its first launch, unlocked Apple's iPhone 4S is now available in 22 more countries, further boosting international sales of the Siri-enabled smartphone that has fetched more than four million sales in its first weekend – the most ever for a phone and more than double the iPhone 4 launch during its first three days,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing.

Schiller said iPhone 4S is a hit with customers around the world, now dubbed as the best iPhone ever with the iOS 5, iCloud and Siri, the intelligent virtual assistant that gets things done through the users' voice-command.

The iPhone 4S became available to customers in U.S., Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and the UK last October 14 and starting October 28, iPhone 4S will be officially available in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

Apple announced that it will release the latest iPhone to other parts of the world by the end of the year but local technophiles reported sightings of an unlocked iPhone 4S at Virra Mall in Greenhills, considered as Manila's tech mecca. The 16GB model sells for a whopping P47,000, the 32GB model for P50,000 and the 64GB for P59,000, a lot more expensive the official price.

The iPhone 4S has a retail price of USD199 for the 16GB model, USD299 for the 32GB model and USD399 for the new 64GB model.

While many users raved about Siri, the iPhone 4S also had its share of woes.

Apple engineers are reportedly looking into user complaints on the smartphones' faster-than-expected battery drain. Apple received complaints from numerous users saying their phones' power are lasting just a few hours, even with minimal use, and with power-draining features disabled, according to Guardian.co.uk.

Apple's patent rival Samsung also tried to stop iPhone 4S sales in Japan and Australia after the South Korea-based tech giant filed preliminary injunctions in the Tokyo District Court and in the New South Wales Registry, Australia over infringement on wireless technology patents.

According to ZDNet Australia, Samsung argued that Apple's new smartphone (in addition to the iPhone 4 and iPad 2) violates three patents in Australia and four patents in Japan. Samsung filed similar cases against Apple in France and Italy.

Last month, it was Apple that sued Samsung over iPhone and iPad patents in Australia and Japan. Samsung lost the case after the federal court of Australia agreed with Apple, and banned the Galaxy Tab 10.1 from sale in that country until a full patent case can be heard.

For months now, Apple and Samsung have been locked in a bitter patent battle over the Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet. Apple said the Samsung tablet copies the iPad and the Galaxy S copies the iPhone

More than 600,000 Facebook accounts compromised daily

Facebook announced in its blog that it will test new security features in the coming weeks, confirming a Sophos report that more than 600,000 Facebook accounts are compromised on a daily basis.

Facebook said its engineers are working exclusively on creating a secure environment on Facebook through the “Trusted Friends and App Passwords feature” to keep users secure on Facebook.

Sophos said the new official statistics disclosed by the social networking giant in an infographic reveal that 0.06% of the more than billion logins that they have each day are compromised.

According to Mashable.com, Facebook’s proposed solution for such breaches is to find three to five “trusted friends.” “That way, if you’re locked out of your account, Facebook will send codes to your friends to give to you. Facebook is also testing app passwords that the company will generate on your behalf and you won’t need to remember.”

According to Facebook, it is testing a feature that allows users to use app passwords for logging into third party applications. To test this new feature, go to Account Settings, then the Security tab, and finally to the App Passwords section. Users can generate a password that you won't need to remember, just enter it along with your email when logging into an application.

Other security tools released by Facebook include the Login Approvals, Login Notifications, and One Time Passwords. The social network also developed several back-end systems to help keep users and their data secure.

“Our considerable work has undoubtedly made Facebook a safer environment. We are adapting and responding to new threats everyday, Facebook said in its post related to National Cybersecurity Awareness Month update.