Bayan Muna: Telcos should refund P111M to customers

LAST December, in view of the telecom corporations’ refusal to obey what the NTC told the public was its order for the telcos to reduce their per- text rate, the party list group Bayan Muna’s congressman, Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño today called on the National Telecommunications Commission ( NTC) to sanction the country’s telecommunications companies for ignoring the commission’s order to lower rates for text messages.

“The NTC should immediately sanction mobile operators who failed to comply with its order to reduce interconnection fees for text messaging. The government should show these giant companies they can’t simply ignore a lawful order and get away with it. How would the telcos follow the NTC when they know that they can circumvent its orders just like that?” the known left- of- center representative said.

Interconnection fees are charged by telecom firms for text messages and calls made between subscribers of different networks.

Rep. Casiño said the NTC order covering SMS rates was supposed to take effect Wednesday, November 30. Mobile operators

Globe Telecom, Smart and Sun Cellular were supposed to reduce the interconnection charge by 15 centavos from 25 centavos, therefore, reducing the cost of a text message to 80 centavos from P1.

But consumers complained that text message costs have not gone down.

The telcos seemed to have interpreted NTC’S order differently.

Smart said its average text message cost now only amounts to 10 centavos, given its different promos. Globe Telecom and Sun Cellular echoed Smart’s explanation, citing their own unlimited text promos. The NTC asserted, however, that its directive does not cover promos but regular text messages.

“So who do we follow, the telcos or the government? Its about time the NTC show the telcos that they mean business and are serious in protecting the public from the abuses of these monopolies,” he stressed.

Later, Bayan Muna activists rallied at the NTC offices repeating Congressman Casiño’s demands and berating the government regulator for being “inutil” ( Tagalog word for useless).

The demnstrators berated the NTC’S powerlessness against the Smart, Globe and Sun and demand that the NTC should order the telcos to rfund consumers.

The militants used the figure P111 million as what the telcos shold refund the public for refusing to comply with the NTC’S order— disputed by the telcos as something that was never specified— to reduce the P1/ text rate to P0.80.

A December report by Ina Alleco R. Silverio in Bulatlat. com says rates should have been lower by 20 centavos since November 30 after the NTC issued memorandum circular 02- 10- 2011.

“The circular prescribes the maximum interconnection charge for text messages and the new fees should be imposed not later than 20 days from the circular’s effectivity. The circular took effect last November 10. The agency is also considering cutting interconnection charges for cellular voice calls at a maximum of two pesos per minute during the first year; and not more than P1.50 on the second year; and a maximum of one peso on year three onwards. The country’s telcos currently charges each other four pesos per minute on interconnection for voice calls.

“If the proposal is approved, voice call rates can be lowered to between three to four pesos ($ 0.069 to $ 0.093) per minute on the first year; two pesos ($ 0.046) per minute on the following year; and one peso ($ 0.023) per minute on the third year onwards. Currently, cellular voice call rates are pegged at P6.50 ($ 0.15)( per minute. Mobile phone interconnection rates were last adjusted in 2003.

“The NTC said interconnection rates to mobile service operators in the Philippines is still one of the highest in Asia.

“Based on reports, the telcos Smart, Globe and Sun owe their subscribers at least P111 ($ 2.58 million) million for still collecting the 20 centavos that should have been deducted since November 30.

“Recently, Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño said the NTC and the telcos risk being the subject of a congressional inquiry and the latter may lose their franchises if the refund is not released immediately.

“Casiño said the telcos should refund the P111 million ($ 2.58 million) which is the total amount in five days of the 20 centavos reduction in the interconnection charge for text messages which they have refused to implement.

“He explained that the estimate is based on data extrapolated from the latest financial reports provided by the telcos themselves, which reveal a gross income of at least P185 million ($ 4.30 million) per day from text messaging services.

“Assuming half of the text messages are between telcos and subject to interconnection fees, the 20- centavo reduction in said fees would mean the telcos have been overcharging their consumers by P18.5 million ($ 430 thousand) per day, or a total of P92.5 million ($ 2.15 million) for the five days that the NTC order remains unimplemented.

“This is a conservative estimate considering the fact that as text capital of the world, some 1.5 to 1.8 billion text messages a day are sent in the Philippines. In some of our computations, the overprice even reached five times this amount,” said Casiño. “The telcos should immediately comply because this amount increases by the day and consumers deserve this break considering that SMS messaging should be free in the first place. The telcos should not force us to call them into an investigation in Congress or revoke their franchises.”

Casiño also criticized the NTC for its failure to lay down sanctions against the erring telcos.