racoma.com.phJ. Angelo Racoma on technology, economics, writing, problogging, and getting things done

Last February 7, I wrote about the case of a couple of dominant players in the Philippine telecom industry complaining against Sun Cellular’s 24/7 pricing scheme.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer, today, publishes two related stories. And in my opinion, these new developments are, in the end, to consumers’ best interest. Details below:

Sun’s 24/7 plan stays–NTC


Inquirer News Service

SUN Cellular, the smallest of the wireless giants, has been given a temporary reprieve after the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) denied the petition of the leading mobile players to stop Sun’s 24/7 unlimited, within-network plan.

The NTC directed Digitel Mobile Philippines Inc. Friday night to answer within 15 days the charges made by its competitor that it was engaging in predatory and discriminatory pricing and that it was delivering poor service to its subscribers.

“We denied the request of Digitel’s competitors for a cease-and-desist order against [the] 24/7 [plan]. The Commission believes circumstances don’t warrant enjoining 24/7 since no prejudice or damage has been done to the public,” NTC Chair Ronald Solis said in an interview.

While the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) may be considered a toothless government agency by some, I must say that it took some guts for the agency to take on such a petition by the dominant telcos. After all, policy decisions in this country are still prone to influence and intervention by the ruling elite.

PLDT launches own unlimited call plan


Inquirer News Service

FOLLOWING the lead of its competitors, the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company has dropped the rate for its more than 21 million fixed-line and wireless customers.

PLDT has launched its own unlimited, within-network promo rate of 10 pesos for all PLDT calls anywhere in the country, as well as to all Smart and Talk ‘N Text mobile subscribers regardless of how long each call takes.

…

“PLDT fixed line subscribers now have to pay only 10 pesos per call regardless of how long the call takes …”

With this development, I believe that it would be prudent for Pilipino Telephone Corp. (Piltel), a subsidiary of PLDT to desist from its complaint against Sun Cellular, given the implications of its parent company’s move. Smart, and Piltel’s brand “Talk and Text” (Smart’s services re-branded and marketed to the lower end market) comprise the country’s largest mobile network. PLDT’s flat-rate pricing is effectively directly competing with Sun’s 24/7, especially since mobiles within the Smart network are also included in the pricing scheme.  It may be good to note that Smart’s coverage and dependability are the probably the best among the coutnry’s telcos, particularly in comparison with the limited coverage and congested lines of Sun’s network.

I wish those involved in this would be able to resolve the issues in a manner that would ultimately consider best the benefit of the Filipino consumer.

So has the dinosaur evolved?

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