NEWS: NTC's proposed data caps violate consumer rights

[ghosthunter]

http://www.gmanews.tv/story/209385/n...ts-lawyer-says

[SIZE="4"]NTC's proposed data caps violate consumer rights, lawyer says[/SIZE]
TJ DIMACALI, GMANews.TV
12/29/2010 | 08:42 PM


International rights lawyer Romel Bagares warned that the National Telecommunications Commission's (NTC's) proposal to allow data volume caps goes against consumers' basic right to information.

In the latest version of its draft Memorandum Order (MO) on Minimum Speed of Broadband Connections, the NTC included a clause that, if approved, would allow telcos to place restrictions on how much information can be accessed by individual users on any given day.

NTC Common Carriers Authorization Department Director Edgardo Cabarios told GMANews.TV that local telcos are considering a daily per user limit of 5GB.

"There were apprehensions raised [by telcos] over abusive users. This [data cap] is meant to discourage unfair use, to give everyone a chance. The idea is to protect the majority of consumers," Cabarios said.

He explained that "abusive users" — including software and movie pirates — account for one to two percent of Filipino broadband consumers. Unfortunately, according to Cabarios, such heavy users prevent the rest of the public from fully utilizing broadband connections.

Hindering people's right to information

However, Bagares, executive director of the Philippine Center for International Law, warned that data volume caps directly hinder people's basic right to information.

"Whistleblower sites such as WikiLeaks process large amounts of information. Also, especially in the Philippines, you have many public schools that use the Internet heavily for educational purposes. Putting in caps would prevent people from sharing as well as receiving information," he explained.


An affront to consumers

Bagares also said that the clause is an affront to consumers' interests.

"This is against consumers' interests, because you have people suffering from 'bill shock' as well as denying their right to information," he told GMANews.TV.

"Bill shock" is a term in the telecommunications industry that refers to the surprise a consumer experiences upon receiving a higher-than-expected bill.

"It's normal human behavior not to carefully look at one's bill. In any case, convergent technologies now allow people to surf the net through their mobile phones, making it more difficult to monitor one's personal consumption," Bagares explained.

Bagares also questioned why caps should be implemented on account of so few abusive users.

"Konti lang ang pirates! (There are so few pirates!) You're punishing the majority [of the public] for the actions of a very few tech-savvy individuals," he said.

NTC: 'It's just a draft'

The NTC was quick to clarify that the draft MO is still open for revision and that the agency welcomes public opinion on the matter.

"We want to make it clear that this is only a draft. It's still very much a work in progress," said Dodie Santos of the NTC's Public Information Office.

Santos handed GMANews.TV the latest copy of the draft MO as of December 2010.

"WHEREAS, it has been observed that few subscribers/users connect to the internet for unreasonably long period [sic] of time depriving other users from connecting to the internet; NOW, THEREFORE... Service providers may set the maximum volume of data allowed per subscriber/user per day," it said.

http://www.gmanews.tv/story/209385/n...ts-lawyer-says

[shadow]

kalokohan yan, inumpisahan kasi ng wi tribe eh...hehehe

[Monseratto]

Nooo...mabibitin yung pag-download ng *******s.

"Konti lang ang pirates! (There are so few pirates!) You're punishing the majority [of the public] for the actions of a very few tech-savvy individuals," he said.

LOL!

[mazingerZ]

e yung Globe naglilimit ng 1 gb for supersurf customers nila in a day - and they have the gall to call it unlimited surfing daw.

[CVT]

WTF!

If violates my "constitutional right" to information....

11.7K:samurai:

[Reepicheep]

Sa BayanDSL 100gb daw limit per month.

http://www.bayan.com.ph/forum/yaf_po...dth-Usage.aspx

[A121]

And our internet speeds here are a joke. Maybe, they should just limit it to wireless broadband access.

[fourtheboys96]

http://www.gmanews.tv/story/209385/n...ts-lawyer-says

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anu ba naman itong mga tauhan ni Ngoyngoy. imbes na boljakin yung mga internet service providers eh consumers ang sinisisi.

tama yung ibang nag-comment sa news na ito. ang dapat gawin eh pwersahin na i-expand ang capabilities ng providershindi. mali yung lagyan ng cap ang usage.

kung nagbabayad naman ang mga consumers at hindi lumabag sa kontrata, walang mali dun. in fact, internet service providers usually ang hindi nasunod sa usapan e.g. internet speed

may fair use pa silang nalalaman eh lahat naman halos ngayon online maghapon magdamag di ba?

[dcph172]

p***** i** sila. sibukan nila ako mismo magoorganize ng pp4.

[creepy]

"Konti lang ang pirates! (There are so few pirates!) You're punishing the majority [of the public] for the actions of a very few tech-savvy individuals," he said.

This guy does not realize how illogical and silly this reasoning is. The cap will affect the very heavy users but not affect the vast majority of consumers.

I am a consumer but it is worth remembering that the provision of internet/broadband services is a business that (1) is sustainable as long as it makes money and (2) will face competition if it doesn't offer favorable terms to consumers that other operators can easily match.

If an operator caps the amount of data, then we can all switch to an operator who will not do so. If the one who does not cap data can still provide good service, then the first operator (who caps the amount of data) will lose customers.

That's how free markets/capitalism works.

There's no such thing as a free lunch. Consumers will have to choose between "unlimited" with poorer speeds or not-so-unlimited with better speeds.

[nervenllarena]

sus ayusin muna nila ang kanilang internet connection hindi yung laging sira at putol putol ang mga signal pati bandwidth speed laging kulang mga letse sila gusto lagi na lang makaisa sa mga customers

[Haruto]

if ever they would push through with the cap firstly dapat ayusin nila yung service nila. yung sinasabi nilang speed hindi naman nila dinedeliver! saka sobra bagal pa ng internet natin dito no compared others in asia. saka dapat yung cap reasonable naman.. say 600gb to 1 tb of data per month.

[ghosthunter]

Sa BayanDSL 100gb daw limit per month.

http://www.bayan.com.ph/forum/yaf_po...dth-Usage.aspx

100gb sounds a lot but that works out to 3.3gb per day. Not much if you watch your TV and movies straight from the internet (legal or otherwise).

Simply someone playing online games, listening to internet radio and/or watching youtube can reach that limit if the connection is fast enough.

[ghosthunter]

This guy does not realize how illogical and silly this reasoning is. The cap will affect the very heavy users but not affect the vast majority of consumers..

Although there is no such thing as a "free lunch" and any business much be profitable, ISPs have had years of providing sub-standard services. And then they add THIS data-cap limit. It is as if they haven't been implementing a connection speed throttling for years.

A limited internet will limit growth of services in this area. Unlimited high speed internet is a gateway for growth and development beyond what we have now.

Look at South Korea's broadband internet and how it has improved their lives.

Can you imagine ALL connectivity services including TV, internet, telephony, music, video security, etc all going into each homes and business through a single high speed data link? I can but that will only happen if there is better service and no data-cap.

Putting a data-cap is a short sighted way to increase system capacity. Much like the "color-coding scheme" used to "improve" traffic in Metro Manila.

[shadow]

ang mga problema eh yun infrastructure ng mga telco, kaya laging congested ang lines. eh bakit sa consumers ipapasa ang problema?

[Lucius]

NTC...you take them seriously?

[ghosthunter]

ang mga problema eh yun infrastructure ng mga telco, kaya laging congested ang lines. eh bakit sa consumers ipapasa ang problema?

It is cheaper solution as in they don't spend a centavo for hardware. All they have to do is tell the admin on duty to set the data-cap limits. Profits increase, stockholders happy (since they would be immune to the data-cap anyway).

And if they got this passed under the noses of the news people, it is typical for pinoys to accept it as inevitable and do nothing about it.

[Big_daddy]

WiTribe started it all with their wimax kuno services...kawawa ang mga heavy users ng internet if this gets implemented kasi restricted na yung access mo sa data.

What if you need to download information or graphics as part of your work...then limited ka na kasi capped ka at let's say 3gb a day.

I hope they see the folly of this action. And how does this transalate to commercial users of ISP services...will this also affect corporate clients in the long run? Wag naman sana.

[dcph172]

at first, i was against the idea. am currently reading up and weighing the pros and cons. however, i believe that heavy users should be billed more than average users. you consume more bandwidth, you pay more. you consume less, you pay less. i dont agree with the 3gb a day caps, but to 90+gb caps a month, im amenable. simply because, there are days im using it up more, there are days that am not.

[ghosthunter]

at first, i was against the idea. am currently reading up and weighing the pros and cons. however, i believe that heavy users should be billed more than average users. you consume more bandwidth, you pay more. you consume less, you pay less. i dont agree with the 3gb a day caps, but to 90+gb caps a month, im amenable. simply because, there are days im using it up more, there are days that am not.

The thing is, subscribers are already paying for their chosen bandwidth (that does not get fulfilled by the ISP anyway).

Adding a data cap is like subscribing to a cable tv service and then the cable service decides to put a maximum number of viewing hours allowed per month on your subscription.

The ISPs are already limiting our bandwidth by "throttling" (limiting internet download speeds) our connection rates lower than the subscribed rates.

Ever wondered why your internet 2MB/s connection never will achieve 2MB/s performance?