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A NEW unit of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) is
seeking regulatory approval for an increase in its service rates,
citing soaring inflation and foreign exchange rates.
In a filing with the National Telecommunications
Commission (NTC), Connectivity Unlimited Resource Enterprise Inc.
(CURE), ownership in which recently passed from the Ongpin family to
PLDT unit Smart Communications Inc., said it would like to charge
P20 per minute for its international direct dial (IDD) from the
earlier P10 per minute approved by the regulator.
The old rates were approved by the NTC in
October 2005.
“Although peso-dollar exchange rates have gone
down over the years, CURE’s forecasted decrease in IDD costs due
[to] international VOIP [Voice over Internet protocol] technology
did not materialize, hence CURE’s IDD termination costs, to be
paid to IGF [international gateway facility] providers, remains
high,” the petition read.
The telecom company said it has to adjust its
rates due to its national roaming arrangement with Smart.
Under the old rates, CURE said it would turn in
a loss, as it pays P2.80 per minute to Smart for national roaming,
and P9.50 per minute for IGF.
The company explained that the new rates would
yield positive revenues to support its operations.
For value added services (VAS), CURE will charge
P50 per download from P0.10 per kilobyte for music clip and P50 per
access from P0.05 per kilobyte for network gaming and streaming
data.
“Due to technology trends, competitor pricing
and the public’s demand to be charged per download or access of
VAS services, CURE would like to change its charging principle from
per kilobyte to per download or access,” the company said.
For browsing or data access, CURE will charge
P20 to P30 per minutes from P0.05 kilobytes. “Due to competitor
pricing and the public’s demand to be charged time-based for
mobile Internet browsing/data access, CURE would like to change its
charging principle from per kilobyte to per 30 minutes interval,”
it added.
The telco also wants to charge P10 per minute
for video calls and P1 for short messaging service (SMS) or text.
For international service, SMS will be charged P20.
For multimedia messaging service, CURE plans to
charge P5 for local and P25 for international services.
Last month, CURE unveiled its 3G service called
Umobile, the first advertising-funded mobile platform in Asia. The
company would focus on mobile advertising to compete in the hotly
contested telecom market.
CURE’s services include mobile broadband
access to the Internet, the use of mobile VOIP and live chat with
Skype, MSN Messenger, Google Talk, ICQ, SIP, Twitter, Yahoo and AIM.
The service launch comes on the heels of
Smart’s acquisition of two Ongpin-led companies that own CURE for
P419.54 million. PH Communications Holdings Corp. and Francom
Holdings Inc. each hold a 96.57-percent and 3.43-percent stake,
respectively, in CURE.
-- Darwin G. Amojelar
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