FEB.

20, 2012 DATE

NR # 2685
REF. NO.

Solon wants to regulate mobile cellular phone service

A lawmaker is strongly pushing for the promotion of the rights of mobile phone subscribers by requiring telecommunications service companies to provide the public with detailed information of their services. Rep. Teddy Casio (Party-list, Bayan Muna) authored House Bill 5653, which seeks to ensure a pro-people telecommunications industry and promote consumer welfare. According to Casio, telecommunications is a necessity, a public utility and a strategic industry for bridging development from urban city centers to rural areas and for the communication needs of people spread across the archipelago as well as those living and working abroad. It is the governments responsibility to provide affordable, accessible and efficient telecommunications services to its citizens. It is every Filipinos right to have access to low-cost and efficient telecommunications services for everyday, basic communication, Casio said. Casio said the government, due to its liberalization and deregulation policies, its inability or refusal to confront the existence of cartels or an oligopoly in the telecommunications sector has failed to uphold consumer rights by refusing to effectively regulate the telecommunications industry. Casio said there were numerous instances where these telecommunication service providers defied the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC). TELCOs refused to implement a 20-centavo deduction on interconnection charges for short messaging service (SMS) which the NTC ordered to take effect on November 30, 2011. An interconnection fee is charged on every SMS from one telco to another and the NTC allows these telcos to greedily charge 1-peso despite the lowered interconnection fee, Casio stressed. Casio said low call and text rates remain the exception rather than the rule even as Smart and Globe cellular sites can now handle more calls and messages compared to a decade ago but still they charge rates that for the poor majority would eat a sizable portion of their income. Likewise, Casio said the true costs of mobile services are hidden in the untransparent pricing of Smart and Globe, which enables them to impose onerous charges. Prepaid subscribers often are left blind as to how their credits were consumed, if they were indeed consumed at all prior to the load expiration, which in itself is a dubious practice. Postpaid subscribers meanwhile bewail a lack of transparency on the charges levied against them as found in billing statements, Casio said. Casio said these are among the many reasons of governments failure to protect the Filipino consumers. NTC has consistently avoided resolving the non-transparency and the irregularities of mobile phone service providers, invoking the supposed deregulation of the telecommunications industry through Republic Act 7925 or the Public Telecommunications Policy Act.

FEB. 20, 2012 DATE

NR # 2685
REF. NO.

The situation of government neglect and oligopolistic exploitation cannot go on unchecked, Casio said. Under the measure to be known as The Mobile Phone Subscribers Act, mobile phone service providers, distributors and retailers are required to file a petition to the NTC every time they intend to implement any changes in the market price ceilings of basic mobile phone services. The NTC shall set the minimum performance metrics based on the success rate of calls, acceptable level of noise in voice calls, network latency and propagation delay and data drops and unreceived data packets. Expiry of prepaid credits is prohibited until such credit has been fully consumed. A subscriber of mobile telephone services shall only be billed for the actual airtime usage and number of messages sent. Also, the six seconds of actual use shall be billed at the rate of one-tenth of a minute using the applicable rate for the particular plan of the mobile phone, whether a post-paid or pre-paid service subscriber. Pre-paid subscribers bill breakdown shall have a detailed billing at no cost to the subscriber, on the usage of their mobile cellular phone by presenting their consumed pre-paid care or load credit tracer numbers to the designated business center of the service providers within seven working days after the consumption or expiration of prepaid cards or load credits. The bill prohibits the charging of inter-network access charges for communication, over and above the prices for mobile phone services, between mobile phones utilizing SIM cards issued by different service providers. It also prohibits unsolicited commercial advertisement sent through SMS, recorded voice calls or other supplementary mobile phone services, retention and disclosure by the service providers of the subscribers personal information for promotion or for a marketing program. Mobile phone service providers are required to adopt a cellular mobile telephony system that will allow subscribers to retain mobile numbers even after they switch service providers. The Departments of Transporation and communication (DOTC), Trade and Industry (DTI), NTC and other relevant government agencies are directed to implement the rules and regulations of this Act. Violators face a maximum fine of P10,000.00 for any person giving false or misleading data or information and P10,000,000,00 if the offender is a corporation and/or suspension or revocation of its franchise. (30) lvc