Not a well thought of plan

This is a very good depiction of the popular adage “the end does not justify the means.”

While members of Congress may have the noblest of intentions in their proposal to reduce text messaging rates from P1 to 50 centavos and to set aside five centavos of this amount for computer education, many do not think that this proposal has been well though out.

For starters, the proposal stems from the assumption that text messaging rates are still at P1 per SMS. We all know that this is no longer true. Only post-paid subscribers, who account for may be less than 10 percent of all mobile phone subscribers, still pay P1 per text. But even this may no longer be true. As a postpaid subscriber myself, I know that I can already avail of bucket SMS promos. For P20 a day, I can send 100 texts to subscribers belonging to the same service provider, or 20 centavos per SMS. There is another bucket SMS promo that allows me to send a certain volume of text messages to subscribers of other service providers for only 50 centavos per text.

It is estimated that with all the bucket SMS promos available in the market now, one can send text messages for as low as 12 centavos per SMS. Of the 12 centavos, a huge amount goes to the payment of the expanded value-added tax, traders’ commissions, among others. Some say the profit that service providers generate per text is even lower than the five centavos that House Rep. Danilo Suarez wants set aside for computer education.

Does this mean that service providers have to go back to the P1 per text regime in order for the House oversight committee’s plan to work? If it is true that the profit per text is less than five centavos per SMS, does this mean that service providers have to pay for the computer education imposition out of pocket?

If this is the case, then the proposal is anti-consumer, not only because it will unilaterally increase text messaging rates but also because it will rob consumers of the ability to communicate at a very affordable cost.

The proposal is also anti-business. Big businesses are being penalized for reporting huge profits, which they made because they were brave enough to invest when nobody dared. Globe Telecom for instance invested P193 billion in capital expenditure in a little over a decade, which is no small fear. Imagine how much Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) has invested in mobile communications.

We do not have to go into the constitutionality of the proposal. It is claimed that the proposal is violation of due process because it deprives service providers of their property without due process. It is also asserted that the proposed measure violates the equal protection clause of the Constitution because mobile service providers are being singled out. Why don’t the manufacturers of sin products pay for computer education? Why not the huge real estate property conglomerates which are also raking in billions of pesos in profits?

Proud to be Filipino

In the age of modern technology, there are some Filipino companies that are really making us proud.

One of these companies is Chikka which created the popular Internet gateway to texting mobile phones.

It presently has 11 patent filings, with 34 applications granted and over 40 pending in 24 countries, all of which are mobile communications related. And now, it even plans to expand its portfolio of patents around SMS-based messaging applications.

Among the technologies Chikka has patented is speed suffixing which is being applied heavily by the company’s flagship service, Chikka Text Messenger. When one sends or receives Chikka messages, a unique number series, for example a phone number, is suffixed to the operator short code. The speed suffixing patent relates to the use of a system-generated suffix that serves to identify a particular session, such as  messaging between two Chikka users.

According to Chikka CEO Chito Bustamante, Chikka Text Messenger, the unique Internet to mobile text service, has been downloaded on millions of computers worldwide. He attributes Chikka’s wide adoption to the patented technologies themselves that make Chikka very easy and highly intuitive to use by both online and mobile users.

Through suffixing, mobile users can easily reply to Chikka text messages like any other regular SMS. There are no extra steps or additional keywords to input and send to an access code.

Another feature that Chikka has patented allows users to enter a mobile number as a PC log-in ID. The result is a unified mobile and instant messaging (IM) account that also allows one to conveniently receive and reply to IM messages as SMS, when away from a PC. The Unified Account is among the earliest patents granted by the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore. Subsequent patents have also been acquired from other countries signatory to the Patent Cooperation Treaty.

Bustamante has pointed out that Chikka since time has invested in building a patent portfolio around those methods and processes that are: one, deemed innovative; and two, pose huge commercial potential.

He adds that Chikka which was launched in 2001 is one of the first, if not the first, commercially successful integration of web and mobile technologies.

Audrey and Yu Sarn, Singapore-based counsel for intellectual property of Chikka says that by global standards, the company and its affiliates have assembled one of the most impressive cluster of patents to protect its messaging-based applications.

Providing various wireless applications to over 30 mobile operators in seventeen countries including the US, UK, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and India, Chikka has also diversified; developing applications for mobile content, commerce, and corporate solutions. According to the company, Chikka Messenger is probably the most widely-used and viewed Internet and mobile-based communications tool by Filipinos worldwide.

Not so hidden agenda

CVC Law has once again lived up to its 100 percent passing rate in the bar examinations. All of its 17 associates passed the 2008 bar exams with The Firm’s Oliver Baclay landing third place. Congratulations too to the successful bar candidates from the Arellano University School of Law.

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