By Darwin G. Amojelar Senior Reporter

THE National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) said it would no longer put off the December implementation of the six-second pulse charging scheme for mobile voice services. Douglas Michael Mallilin, NTC deputy commissioner told reporters that the agency would no longer consider the proposal of telecom companies for the deferral of the implementation of Memorandum Circular No. 05-07-2009, or the Guidelines on Unit of Billing of Mobile Voice Service.

The circular fixed the maximum unit of billing for cellular mobile telephone service (CMTS) at six seconds per pulse.

“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.

Smart Communications Inc., Connectivity Unlimited Resources Enterprises (CURE) and Globe Telecom Inc. earlier requested moving the effectivity of the agency’s order to January next year, citing their need for technical adjustments.

The telcos said public service will be compromised if the network is modified during times when call, short messaging service (SMS) and multimedia service (MMS) traffic are at their highest levels, particularly from October to January.

Mallilin also said the regulator will set fair and reasonable flag down rates for mobile voice call services.

“We will look at the reasonable cost of call set-up,” he said.
Smart and its unit, CURE, proposed a flag down rate of between P3 and P6 for first two pulses and P0.70 to P2.25 for each succeeding pulse.

Globe and unit Innove Communications Inc. proposed a flag down rate of P1.50 to P4 for the first six seconds. For each succeeding pulse, the Ayala-led telcos want to impose a rate of P0.70 to P1.25.
Sun Cellular wants a flag down rate of between P3 and P7.50 for first two pulses and P0.80 to P1 for each succeeding pulse.

At present, the rate for on-net or within network voice calls is P6.50 per minute, while off-net or outside the network calls are charged P7.50 per minute.