Call and Text Rates to Go Down by 20 cents

[1D4LV]

Call, text rates to go down 20¢
By Jess Diaz
Thursday, June 5, 2008 Good news for the country’s 50 million mobile phone subscribers: the cost of voice calls and text messages will soon go down by at least 20 centavos.
Deputy Commissioner Jaime Fortes of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) told three House committees that they have just issued a circular ordering telecommunications companies (telcos) to reduce their interconnection or access fee from 35 centavos to 15 centavos per call or text message.
Fortes said they would first publish the circular before it takes effect 15 days after publication.
An interconnection or access fee is charged when a subscriber of a particular mobile phone company makes a call or sends a text message to a subscriber of another telco. There is no such fee if the sender or caller and the receiver are subscribers of the same telco.
The three House committees – information technology, oversight and legislative franchises – held their first hearing on a bill of Albay Rep. Al Francis Bichara requiring telcos to make text messaging free of charge.
Representatives of Globe Telecom, Smart Communications and Sun Cellular informed the committees that voice calls now cost between P5 and P7 each, while the cost of a text message averages P1.
Fortes revealed the NTC reduction order in answer to questions raised by opposition Rep. Roilo Golez of Parañaque.
Golez, who is opposed to the free texting proposal, said the order means that the price of each text would soon go down to 80 centavos.
“This will be a big relief to millions of subscribers, considering the rising cost of fuel and food items,” he said.
Fortes also informed the three committees that there are now about 50 million Filipinos with cellular phones.
“They send about 550 million messages a day. I think we are still the world’s texting capital, although there are reports that China has already dislodged us,” he said.
Golez said 550 million messages a day mean that telcos are raking in P550 million a day or more than P200 billion a year in texting receipts alone.
During the hearing, telco representatives said their companies are opposed to free texting but would accept proposals to reduce the cost of voice calls and text messages.
Upon Golez’s motion, the three committees asked NTC whether the cost of a text could be further reduced to 50 centavos for messages sent within the same network and 60 centavos for messages sent from one network to another.
However, Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez, oversight committee chairman, said the 50-60-centavo price is still high “considering that the proposal is to make texting free.”
“At that price, telcos will still make combined profits of P97 billion a year. We have to bring it down further,” he said.
Catanduanes Rep. Joseph Santiago, who heads the committee on information technology, told his colleagues that when he was NTC commissioner, he tried to make texting free.
“But the telcos stopped me by obtaining a court restraining order even before I could publish my directive,” he said.



http://www.philstar.com/index.php?He...id=20080604181



imho, pwede naman pala eh, bat ngayon lang iiimplement? kung hindi pa nasilip.

pero on the side of the telcos, i understand dahil they made huge equipment investments to improve their services. remember before na ang hirap mag text (parating message failed) even with Globe and Smart?

[mazdamazda]

Before hindi pa feasible... pero ngayong medyo nakabawi na sila it's the right move to make.

__________________

bigbigcar.com Review: Kia Carnival LX SWB

[mazdamazda]

Before hindi pa feasible... pero ngayong medyo nakabawi na sila it's the right move to make.

__________________

bigbigcar.com Review: Kia Carnival LX SWB

[tidus1203]

Finally something deflationary in the economy... Unfortunately I don't text heavily...

[creepy]

Wow. Napakatalino talaga ng mga taong naghihikayat na maging "libre" ang text.

Frankly, I think it's foolish to expect "free" text.

If you were Globe or Smart, would you invest in any equipment to transmit text if you were forced to give it for free? Service can only become worse.

Nagpapasikat lang ang mga congressman natin.

[uls]

di nyo napansin?

The govt is trying to prevent a mass uprising due to high fuel and food prices.

Since the govt can't do anything about fuel and food, it is trying to reduce other expenses of the people.

Like electric bills and cell phone load.

Diba may idea ang govt na gawin libre ang text?

And we all know what the govt is doing to Meralco.

And the govt is telling oil/LPG execs to stop making price increase annoncements in the media that will outrage the masses.

The govt knows there is real danger in mass uprising and rioting coz of fast rising cost of living.

Kaya kung ano ano mga ideas ng govt people para bawasan ang gastusin ng mga tao.

Baka next thing ibaba nila ang presyo ng yosi at alak hehehe

---------

dagdag ko lang...

di din kasi magalaw ng govt ang VAT

---------

Meron diba ung P500 govt hand out to low power consuming Meralco customers?

---------

And syempre ung NFA rice...

see the trend?

-------------

The govt's worse fear is rioting and chaos in the streets.

Which can lead to the collapse of the present admin...

Observe the actions of the govt...

the actions point toward trying to prevent that scenario from happening.

[webmiester]

I just dislike it when the government starts imposing this and that ceiling on private individuals and companies when they don't have any ceilings to their tax increases and their corruption kick backs! It's clearly a way for them to put the blame on us and let's private individuals shoulder the government ignorance on corruption issues.

In one of the print statements of Meralco, they noted the price changes of certain services over the past few years. I cant remember the exact figures but it went something like this:

Gasoline: +30%
Diesel: +25%
Taxes: +438%
Electric Distribution: -7%
Telecommunications: -17%

It showed that taxes went up the highest during the period covered. Imposing price ceilings for the telecommunications may be a good thing to us, but it;s not appealing to me when it is just done for "pogi" points of certain government officials.

[iho250]

di nyo napansin?

The govt is trying to prevent a mass uprising due to high fuel and food prices.

Since the govt can't do anything about fuel and food, it is trying to reduce other expenses of the people.

Like electric bills and cell phone load.

Diba may idea ang govt na gawin libre ang text?

And we all know what the govt is doing to Meralco.

And the govt is telling oil/LPG execs to stop making price increase annoncements in the media that will outrage the masses.

The govt knows there is real danger in mass uprising and rioting coz of fast rising cost of living.

Kaya kung ano ano mga ideas ng govt people para bawasan ang gastusin ng mga tao.

Baka next thing ibaba nila ang presyo ng yosi at alak hehehe

+ 10!

diverting everyone's attention from the real problem!!!

[karlbo]

imho, pwede naman pala eh, bat ngayon lang iiimplement? kung hindi pa nasilip.

pero on the side of the telcos, i understand dahil they made huge equipment investments to improve their services. remember before na ang hirap mag text (parating message failed) even with Globe and Smart?

papa, kahit maging libre pa yan. di mo pa rin naman ako tinetext eh.

[1D4LV]

papa, kahit maging libre pa yan. di mo pa rin naman ako tinetext eh.

OT: eh papano kita itetext? every week nagpapalit ka ng number. di ko na alam kung ano number mo.

dami mo kasi chix eh...