Press Statement
5 December 2011
TXTPower/Computer Professionals' Union
www.cp-union.com/press
Contact: Mr. Rick Bahague, 09328886278
“In order to lower texting charges immediately, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) should enforce its memorandum circular 02-10-2011 and sanction telcos that do not comply,” said Mr. Rick Bahague of the Computer Professionals' Union (CPU) and TXTPower. Txtpower is an organization of cellphone users that aims to empower Filipino both as consumers and as citizens. CPU is a core convenor of the alliance.
“Since 30 November, we are paying 20 centavos more for every sms due to the noncompliance of these telcos. This translates to at least P 18.5 M per day of unauthorized sms charges passed on to consumers,” explains Mr. Bahague. This conservative estimate is based on data from 2010 telco reports.
In 2009, Globe and SMART recorded 800 million and about 1 billion messages, respectively. Thus, a combined sms traffic of 1.8B messages per day passes through the largest telcos.
“NTC should sanction telcos now. While most of us are thinking how we can share our blessings during this holiday season, SMART, GLOBE, and DIGITEL are continuing to defy the NTC order and continue to charge more on their services,” adds Mr. Bahague.
NTC ordered a P0.20 reduction in regular SMS fees starting 30 November. However, telcos are yet to comply with the said memorandum. “This memorandum should be applied immediately to regular or standard sms, in contrary to what telcos are saying,” reacts Mr. Bahague. Globe on its blog site said that the memorandum will allow them to “offer more aggressive and competitive sms” based on their usual promos. “Not all consumers avail their promos. As consumers, we should be given high quality and cheaper service not only during their promo periods or buckets,” says Mr. Bahague.
Txtpower has been advocating for greater access to telecommunications services since 2001. It has been an active advocate of using mobile technologies in various campaigns. CPU is an institution advancing ICT for the People. The group is currently running a survey on broadband providers quality of service. Visit the survey form here. ####
References
- GLOBE's Statement on the NTC initiative to lower access rates, retrieved 4 December 2011.
- Filipinos no longer text-"addicts", ABS-CBN, retrieved 4 December 2011.
- SMART's sms traffic data taken from PLDT 2010 Annual Report Financial Section.
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 NTC pressure 4 Dec 2011.pdf | 114.85 KB |