Philippines Regulator Rejects Calls to Delay Tariff Changes

­The Philippines telecoms regulator has no plans to delay implementation of billing in six-second pulses despite calls from the operators for more time to deploy the billing changes. Douglas Michael Mallilin, NTC deputy commissioner told The Manila Times that the agency would no longer consider the proposal of telecom companies for a delay.

"They [telcos] requested for an extension because of the volume of transaction during December. Our target implementation is by December 6.There's no extension," Mallilin said, adding that the telcos have four months to fix their system.

The operators had argued that making radical changes during the busiest months for their networks was not viable and wanted a delay until after the January peak had passed. Under the planed changes, the rate for the first two pulses can be higher than the subsequent pulses to cover the costs of call-set up.

The operators currently charge for calls per minute, a tendency that is thought to have been partially responsible for the huge use of SMS in the country for short conversations.

On the web: The Manila Times

Posted to the site on 28th September 2009