MANILA - Lopez-led Bayan Telecommunications Inc. will appeal a recent Court of Appeals decision that affirmed the government's rejection of its application for a third-generation (3G) license.

BayanTel said it will exhaust all legal remedies by filing a motion for reconsideration before the CA on or before September 1 or within the prescribed 15-day period.

"In the last 2 years, we have demonstrated our capability to roll out a 3G compliant network with our CDMA-based wireless landline service which disrupted and transformed the voice calling market today," BayanTel Chief Executive Consultant Tunde Fafunwa said.

BayanTel is among the 3G firms that complained about the NTC's process of bidding out frequency bandwidths for 3G services. Next Mobile, AZ Communications, Multimedia Telephony Inc., Pacific Wireless, and BayanTel said the NTC denied them due process, which led to the rejection of their 3G frequency license application.

They brought the matter before the CA, which later issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) barring the NTC from awarding the fifth and remaining 3G frequency license. The TRO, however, was lifted on January 31 this year as no writ of preliminary injunction was issued by the court.

This means another phone firm may be awarded a 3G license by the NTC anytime soon.

The CA has recently rejected BayanTel's petition to reverse the NTC's rejection of its 3G frequency license application. In a 28-page order dated August 12, the appelate court said BayanTel's petition failed on procedural and substantive grounds.

On procedure, Bayan’s petition is infirm since no party was impleaded as respondent, and the CA pointed out that Bayan should have impleaded the NTC and the four telecom firms granted 3G licenses since, “simply stated, no respondent, no case.”

“Considering that the method of ranking being questioned by Bayan was also employed by the NTC upon the four 3G frequency-assignees, it follows that they should have been impleaded as indispensible parties since any change in the method of ranking would necessarily affect the scores that they garnered,” said the court.

The court added: “Nullifying the entire ranking system that the NTC adopted will result to an invalidation not only of the qualification process involving Bayan but also that of the four 3G frequency-assignees.”

To date, the NTC has awarded 3G permits to Smart Communications Inc., Globe Telecom, Digital Mobile Philippines Inc., and Connectivity Unlimited Resources Enterprises. With a report from Lenie Lectura, Business Mirror