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THE Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co.’s
international call rates to countries with large number of overseas
Filipino workers are cheaper than what rival Globe Telecom, Inc.
charges.
Documents obtained from the
National Telecommunications Commission showed that PLDT’s
international call rates are $0.06, or P3 per minute to United
States, Hong Kong and Canada and $0.10, or P5 per minute to China,
Malaysia, Taiwan, Singapore and South Korea.
Rival Globe, on the other hand,
imposes higher call rate to US, China, South Korea, Hong Kong,
Taiwan and Singapore at $0.20 per minute. It goes down to $0.14, or
P7.50 per minute during off-peak hours in the US and Canada.
The PLDT and Globe explained that
the international call rates that terminate in the Philippines
cannot go below the Philippine termination rate of $0.12 per minute
(fixed lines) for traditional or tier 1 service providers, those
with networks of their own, and $0.16 per minute for mobile phones.
The NTC, however, said that the
present international direct dial (IDD) rates from the Philippines
to other countries, particularly the US, are comparable to the rates
from other countries to the country.
The regulator explained that the
disparity in international call rates is due to the competitive
pressure. “Carriers lower their rates in destinations where there
is much competition, e.g. US,” it added.
The NTC also said the telecom
companies have committed themselves to continuously improve their
cost structure and review their international and domestic call
rates so that consumers and OFWs shall have economical and quality
telephone services.
“With the continued improvement
of the network [some carriers have already installed next generation
networks] and increasing competitive pressures, the IDD rates are
expected to decline in the coming years,” the NTC said.
--Darwin G. Amojelar
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