{"id":208330,"date":"2015-07-22T14:07:46","date_gmt":"2015-07-22T04:07:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=208330"},"modified":"2015-07-22T14:07:46","modified_gmt":"2015-07-22T04:07:46","slug":"gta-says-its-still-interested-to-expand-to-the-cnmi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/gta-says-its-still-interested-to-expand-to-the-cnmi\/","title":{"rendered":"GTA says it\u2019s still interested to expand to the CNMI"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guam\u2019s incumbent telecom carrier, GTA, is still interested in investing and expanding in the Commonwealth, one of its executives said.<\/p>\n

\"Dan<\/a>
Dan Tydingco, executive vice president for external and legal affairs at GTA, gives lawmakers on Capital Hill a presentation on GTA\u2019s range of services and latest projects. (Joel D. Pinaroc)
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Dan Tydingco, executive vice president for external and legal affairs at GTA, said the company \u201calways intended to expand here [in the CNMI].\u201d<\/p>\n

Tydingco said GTA wanted to set up shop in the CNMI two and a half years ago, \u201cwanting to become a competing local exchange carrier.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said, however, that GTA\u2019s application to enter the CNMI as a business competitor is still \u201cin the courts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to comment with that case before the court with regards to the challenges that have been posed to us entering into the market,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The case Tydingco was referring to is an ongoing legal tussle between GTA and IT&E.<\/p>\n

Michael Norita Evangelista, legal counsel for GTA, declined to comment, saying only that the \u201ccase is still tied up in court.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lawyer indicated that this is the only \u201chindrance\u201d for GTA to come into the CNMI.<\/p>\n

Tydingco met with lawmakers last week on Capital Hill to provide information on GTA\u2019s range of services and latest projects.<\/p>\n

In a presentation, he said the Commonwealth has only one submarine cable system linking it to the outside world, unlike Guam which has several.<\/p>\n

He described the CNMI\u2019s connection as \u201csingle-threaded.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the possibility of the CNMI having another cable system, Tydingco said it is probably up to the lawmakers and the CNMI government to make the determination.<\/p>\n

The GTA meeting was convened by Rep. Francis Taimanao (Ind-Saipan) in the aftermath of a massive communications breakdown more than a week ago that continues to affect Saipan.<\/p>\n

On Monday, IT&E maintained that it has \u201cno monopoly\u201d in the CNMI.<\/p>\n

James Oehlerking, chief executive officer of PTI, which is the parent company of IT&E, said that \u201canybody can come in here and compete.\u201d He added that investors eyeing the CNMI can come anytime.<\/p>\n

He also pointed out that they are providing service to other telecoms in the CNMI such as iConnect and Docomo.<\/p>\n

Asked if it\u2019s possible for the CNMI to have multiple fiber optic cable connections like Guam, Oehlerking said it\u2019s not easy.<\/p>\n

\u201cGuam is much more of a through-point in the middle of the Pacific so there are multiple cables that pass through Guam,\u201d Oehlerking said.<\/p>\n

He added that Guam over the years has been set up as a through-point. \u201cIt\u2019s not easy to change routes or just say let\u2019s go through Saipan en route to say, Taiwan or China,\u201d the executive said.<\/p>\n

After the CNMI-wide network outage more than a week ago, Internet capacity is still not at 100 percent as connections are relying on backup systems.<\/p>\n

Oehlerking said they will take another look into their entire system once the repairs are done. A repair vessel coming from Taiwan is on its way to the CNMI and is expected to arrive Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Guam\u2019s incumbent telecom carrier, GTA, is still interested in investing and expanding in the Commonwealth,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":208334,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[26,6016,51,513],"class_list":["post-208330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-cnmi","tag-gta","tag-guam","tag-taiwan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}