Gov't to come up with policies on phone metering by first half

The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) and its attached agency, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), are set to come up with policy directions on the telephone metering scheme within the first half of the year.

Newly appointed Undersecretary for Communications Agustin Bengzon said yesterday that while everything remains in status quo, the DOTC and NTC are conducting a joint study as to how to address the long-pending issue.

Bengzon, however, declined to give a hint as to whether they will push for the implementation of the so-called local measured scheme (LMS) which telecom companies are espousing or simply stick to the current billing system.

"I wouldn't want to preempt the conclusion of the study. Allow us to come up with whatever is appropriate," he said.

Under LMS, landline subscribers will no longer have unlimited use of their phones for just a fixed monthly fee. Instead, customers will be given a call volume allocation per month for a certain amount. Any excess usage will entail additional charges.

Although Digital Telecommunications Philippines Inc. (Digitel) as well as small private telephone firms in the provinces are already using the system for several years now, LMS only got the public's attention after dominant carrier Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) announced a decision to adopt it in April 1998.

PLDT's plans, though, went awry after the Senate questioned the move in response to a public outcry that LMS would further burden telephone subscribers.

As a result of the Senate inquiry, the NTC temporarily suspended PLDT's provisional authority (PA) to enforce the scheme until the telephone giant is able to show a revised and more acceptable proposal.

"Of course, we realize here that the major players could perhaps have done a better job in selling the idea but since this has already happened, we have to come up with a policy on what to do with it, how to move forward," Bengzon said.

The previous DOTC and NTC leadership were supportive of metering since it is said to be the trend worldwide and is considered one of the best ways to curb telebabad or phone misuse.

Yet, the Philippine League for Democratic Telecommunications Inc. (PLDTI) said that metering of voice calls is already obsolete with foreign carriers even offering very low rates or even free voice calls.

"Instead of squeezing consumers and trying to amass profits from voice calls, they should instead be more efficient and offer high-demand, value-added data services like telcos in other countries," Emmanuel Amador, PLDTI president, said.

Moreover, Amador noted that metering cannot solve the telebabad phenomenon which is prevalent worldwide and where no known experience is said to profess that metering has discouraged the practice. -