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PHILIPPINE Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) warned of higher call
rates over the Internet as telecom companies will be forced to
increase the cross subsidy on international toll services owing to
the regulator’s proposal to tighten rules for voice over Internet
protocol (VoIP).
The National Telecommunications Commission’s
additional guidelines for VoIP came on the heels of complaints from
service providers and from Congress that the access charge imposed
by telcos remains exorbitant.
At present, landline calls are charged an access
fee of $0.12, while mobile-phone calls incur a $0.16 charge.
Under a proposed circular, the NTC said that the
compensation for a transit charge should be no higher than P0.25 a
minute, whereas the access charge on VoIP calls should be no more
than P1.50 a minute.
Alfredo B. Carrera, PLDT first vice-president
for regulatory and telecom industry relations, said with local
service still priced below cost, the required cross subsidy of local
exchange carriers (LEC) from toll services will be adversely
affected.
“To recover loss in subsidy, operators will be
pressured to increase their local service rates. This therefore
defeats the main objective of VoIP which is to lower call rates,”
he said.
The PLDT executive said the law mandates that
the provision of value-added services should not affect the cross
subsidy to the local exchange network by the international and
national toll services and cellular mobile telephone services (CMTS).
Carrera said global average termination rates
are significantly higher than the proposed uniform VoIP rate of
P1.50 or $3.7 cents.
“A recent ITU [International Telecommunication
Union] study shows that the worldwide average fixed and mobile
termination rate is $13.77 cents,” he said.
Carrera also said that dictating lower charges
by imposing rate caps for VoIP service providers while adopting the
existing interconnection model does not provide equitable returns to
the network provider for its investments facilities.
Darwin G. Amojelar
“With the same facilities being used by both
VoiP [service providers] and other access seeker[s], there is a
greater need to provide the basis by which the rate caps were
derived,” he said.
Carrera noted that since VoIP technology will no
longer be able to distinguish call types, the new rules will further
increase arbitrage opportunities and increase prevalence of toll
bypass.
Republic Act 7925 specifically protects telcos
from uncompensated bypass because it unfairly affects the business
viability of the network provider.
Carrera said the provisions of the draft
circular will have adverse effects on the Philippine economy owing
to the significant decrease in dollar inflows, reduced tax
collections, and a possible deceleration of growth in the
countryside due to the loss of income and employment among smaller
telcos.
PLDT earlier announced that it plans to acquire
smaller telcos especially in areas outside Metro Manila.
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