THE National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) plans to collect nearly P3.8 billion in outstanding supervision and regulation fees (SRF) from NOW Telecom Inc. following a final ruling from the Supreme Court on the matter of the company's unpaid obligations.
In a statement, the NTC said it welcomed SC resolution dated April 21, 2026, which denied with finality NOW's motion for reconsideration and affirm the regulator's decision to disqualify the telco from the 3G spectrum assignment over its failure to pay the required supervision and regulation fees and spectrum user fees (SUF).
The high court also ordered the immediate issuance of an entry of final judgment in G.R. Nos. 188655, 189221 and 205603 covering all cases involving NOW, formerly known as Next Mobile Inc., that were included in the SC’s consolidated decision dated Nov. 13, 2023.
In the November decision, the Supreme Court upheld the NTC's assessment and imposition of additional SRF and SUF charges arising from NOW's debt-to-equity conversion.
In that decision, the high court had rejected NOW’s argument that additional paid-in capital resulting from the debt-equity conversion should have been excluded from the computation of its supervision and regulation fees.
The SC ruled that the conversion of creditors' liabilities into stock subscriptions resulted in a corresponding increase in the company's capital stock, making the converted liabilities equivalent to fully paid shares and therefore subject to the applicable regulatory fees.
It further affirmed NOW Telecom's disqualification from the 3G frequency spectrum amid the telco's continued refusal to settle its outstanding regulatory obligations.
"As of December 2005, Next Mobile had an unpaid supervision and regulation fee of P126,094,195.67 and a spectrum user fee of P9,674,190.00. As the National Telecommunications Commission pointed out, Next Mobile did not pay these fees even under protest. Next Mobile was, thus, correctly disqualified for non-payment of fees," the SC resolution read.
In compliance with the final ruling, NTC said it would now proceed with the collection of NOW Telecom’s unpaid obligations amounting to P,769,408,931.66 as of Sept. 30, 2025, inclusive of accumulated penalties.
NOW representatives were not immediately available for comment.
NOW Corp. shares on Friday closed down one centavo, or 1.69 percent at P0.58 apiece. TMT
