As promised, the cost for calls between networks have been
significantly decreased for calls and SMS as promised by President Rodrigo Duterte to
make goods and services affordable and accessible to consumers, particularly
the marginalized.
As per the
instructions, The Department of Information and Communications
Technology (DICT) then issued Department Order No. 002 directing the
National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to study and formulate the
guidelines that will bring down the cost of interconnection
.
In the draft
Memorandum Circular (MC) drafted by the NTC following a study,
interconnection charges were reduced to P 0.50 per minute from P
2.50 per minute for voice service and P 0.05 per text from P
0.15 per text for SMS.
A public hearing was
conducted to enable telecommunication companies to comment and submit their
position paperspertaining to the MC.
On July 19, 2018, the
final MC was issued by the NTC.
The reduced interconnection
rates are expected to benefit consumers across socio-economic
classes, making voice call and SMS services between networks more
affordable. This will also allow telcos to attract more subscribers
and offer a wide variety of unlimited plans and services.
Significantly, the
MC will benefit landline subscribers and users of basic 2G
mobile phones nationwide, majority of whom belong to the marginalized
sectors of society.
