NTC plans new rules for cheaper, better cellphone services

MANILA, Philippines - Amidst calls from the Senate for an improvement in the current mobile phone service regime, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) plans to issue at least five new circulars hopefully by next week aimed at reducing the cost of and improving the quality of cellular phone services in the country.

NTC commissioner Ruel Canobas disclosed over the weekend that a consultation will be conducted among the various telecommunications companies and other stakeholders today on the new rules. “We hope to be able to submit these new circulars to the Senate at the next hearing so that we could let the senators know what we are doing. We will just be furnishing the Senate copies. We are not seeking their approval on these circulars,” he said.

NTC officials have been the subject of intense grilling from the Senators over the past few days, triggered by a complaint from Senator Juan Ponce Enrile that his cellphone load has mysteriously disappeared. His service provider, Globe Telecom, however produced a record of his recent transactions which showed that he downloaded content that caused a reduction in his load balance.

The first NTC circular will impose a cap on the voice and text messaging interconnection rates being charged by telcos on one another, the benefits of which, NTC officials hope, will be passed on to consumers in terms of lower mobile call and text rates.

As planned, from the current P4 interconnection rate per call, this will have to be reduced to P2.50, then to P2 and P1. The reductions are made at intervals of every two years. Meanwhile, from the 35 centavo per text interconnection rate, this will have to go down to 25 centavos, 20 and 15 also in two-year intervals.

“But since what we will be imposing are ceilings, the telcos can always agree on lower rates,” Canobas said.  Interconnection charges are imposed by telcos only on calls or text messages that land on their network from other telcos. On-net calls and texts or those made by subscribers belonging to the same telco network have no interconnection charges ( i.e. a call from one Globe user to another).

The second NTC circular calls for a change in the current method of billing mobile calls, from the present per minute charge to per six-second and three-second charging. At present, calls are charged the full rate although the call is for just a few seconds. Globe and Smart Communications however offer on a promotional basis per second charging (10 centavos per second) but only for on-net calls.

NTC issued a circular many years back that called for a per six second charging of mobile voice calls but the commission received a permanent injunction from the courts. “We will not reissue that portion of the circular on the six second pulse rate because we might be the subject of contempt proceedings by the court. The scheme will be different this time and we do not expect much opposition from the telcos,” an NTC official said.

The plan is for the first six seconds to be charged a certain rate, after which the duration will be cut to three seconds for the succeeding time consumed per call.

The third NTC memorandum circular, meanwhile, aims to protect mobile subscribers from spam messaging, specifically those sent by content providers who advertise their products and services via text message.

Canobas said that under an existing MC, content providers are only allowed to send to a subscriber one free promotional text. The subscriber can opt to avail of the service by responding to the text but if no response from the subscriber is received by the content provider, this means that the subscriber is not interested.

However, members of the Senate have called the NTC’s attention to the fact that subscribers are being barraged by too many promotional text message.

The new circular will now prohibit content providers and even telcos from using text messages as a means of promoting new products and services. “They will have to use other forms of advertising such as newspapers, TV, or radio to promote their services. Right now, subscribers are receiving all these messages even without their consent,” Canobas emphasized.

The fourth set of rules to be issued by the NTC involves extending the expiration period of cellphone loads of prepaid users.

The agency has been prevented from setting the expiration and duration of cellphone loads by the courts. “We expect a withdrawal of the injunction upon the instance of the telco-complainants,” an NTC official said.

Canobas said the load expiry will depend on the amount of the load. “If it’s P10 or below, our proposal is three days. If it’s P600 and above, 180 days,” he revealed.

Meanwhile, the fifth proposed MC covers the revenue-sharing agreement between telcos and content providers. At present, it is 70 -30 in favor of the content providers. As planned, the sharing scheme will have to be cost-oriented.