Jul. 14--In an order, Judge Artemio Eugenio Jr. of the Manila RTC Branch 24 has granted Trans Digital Excel Inc.'s request for a preliminary injunction against the regulator from reallocating the 1710-1720/1805-1815 Megahertz (MHz) band from WLL to broadband wireless access (BWA) services during Extelcom's corporate rehabilitation period.

The court said the technical studies and expert opinion presented by Transdigital adequately showed there certainty of signal inference to Extelcom's cellular telephone operations in its assigned 1720-1725-1815-1820 MHz.

The company's study said this would happen if the adjacent 1710-1720-1805-1815 MHz is reallocated and issued for broadband services.

Quoting Transdigital, the court said the interference generated by the reallocation and use of the idle frequencies for broadband services would render its 1720-1726/1815-1820 MHz band next to useless. This will only result in preventing the re-launch of services under Extelcom's rehabilitation, the court said.

"NTC has not disputed this assertion," the court order read.

The court added that since the issuance of the memorandum circular is imminent and clearly affect Extelcom's right to its frequency assignment, the regulator's "contention of prematurity is untenable."

Earlier, Extelcom said it is allotting $1.3 billion for capital expenditures in the next 10 years to build 5,365 cellular mobile telephone service (CMTS) base stations nationwide.

The company said this would be funded through a combination of debt and equity, adding that San Miguel Corp. (SMC) may finance Extelcom's capex if it joins the company.

The group, led by businessman Roberto Ongpin and UK-based Ashmore Investment

Management Ltd., is buying shares from Extelcom' creditors. The company is currently under rehabilitation and has total outstanding debt of P9.017 billion.

Transdigital, which acquired the 59.04 percent of Extelcom from Millicom Cellular S.A., filed for rehabilitation before the Manila regional trial court.

But Marifil Holdings Corp., which is owned by Lopez-led Bayan Telecommunications Inc., earlier said it would continue to fight the "hostile" takeover of Extelcom and pursue all legal remedies to reverse the alleged illegal dilution of its shares in the latter.

Extelcom was majority owned by Marifil but its stake in Extelcom has been diluted from 46.62 percent to 8.39 percent after the debt-to-equity swap that resulted from the rehabilitation case.

Bayan's credit exposure to Extelcom stands at P20.17 million.

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