Parties in prepaid load mess reach compromise

MANILA, Philippines - In a bid to save the P5-billion a year mobile value-added service (VAS) industry, officials of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) and representatives of content providers agreed yesterday to thresh out some provisions of a new memorandum that will allow longer shelf life for prepaid loads and regulate messages from content providers.

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile interceded between the two groups during a meeting at the Office of the Senate President.

“I explained to them that it has never been the purpose or intention of the government, especially of Congress and the Senate in particular, to put anybody out of business,” said Enrile after the meeting.

“That’s not the purpose of the inquiry or the investigation going on. It’s simply that we want to solve the problem in order to protect public interest and at the same time serve the interest of the telecommunication companies and the service providers so that they can continue in business,” Enrile added.

Only recently, giant telecommunication companies came under fire after Enrile himself experienced losing his load in his prepaid cellular phone because of unsolicited ring tones and messages.

The NTC was then forced to issue a new memorandum compelling telcos to extend the shelf life of prepaid loads and to put a stop to unsolicited or spam messages sent to subscribers.

The content providers have expressed concern that the NTC memorandum order banning push messages would put in peril the P5-billion value- added services (VAS) of cellular phone companies.

Emerging from the closed-door meeting, NTC commissioner Ruel Canobas said they have agreed to thresh out some provisions in the memorandum.

Canobas said content providers will be given time to answer a “show cause order” before they are sanctioned if there is a complaint against them.

“The basic problem that they raised is, that according to their fear, they will be closed at any time. (There) is a provision that their access to the system will be shut off. The good commissioner agreed that the content providers will be given a show-cause notice, to show cause why they should not be stopped from doing business,” Enrile said.

“(In this way) the business will thrive and the public will be protected,” the Senate president said.

John Alonte, G-Gateway Mobile Phils. Inc. chief executive officer and spokesman for the VAS group, said the group is amenable with some amendments to the NTC order.

The content providers have complained that the “NTC indiscriminately bans all push messages – whether legitimately subscribed to by mobile users or not.”

Alonte said the ban also covers news content, one of the most relevant contents and among the most subscribed by mobile phone users.