New billing method to hike cellphone call usage

Charging mobile phone calls per six-second increments, instead of per minute, will boost voice call usage, a new report from a US-based analyst firm said. ‘Pulse’ charging, as mandated by a recent National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) circular, will allow mobile consumers “to avail of and pay for only the amount of service that they need," International Data Corp. (IDC) said. As a result, it will tilt the “balance of power within the mobile services market" in favor of consumers, IDC said. Under Memorandum Circular 05-07-2009, telecommunications companies are required to bill their subscribers for every pulse – a period of six seconds – with the first two pulses charged with a flag down rate. Since the Philippine mobile market has always been a highly retail market, users prefer to make small immediate spending, IDC said. “Prepaid users consist more than 95 percent of overall mobile subscriber base," IDC said. However, the new arrangement will not discourage texting. Besides being cheaper, texting is also based on “cultural factors," the report said. IDC said although many consumers skirt around the prevailing per minute charging by availing of unlimited and bucket-priced voice call services, most of these are offered on promotional basis. The new set of regulations will also amend interconnection agreements among service providers and related parties to comply with the new billing scheme. The research outfit noted that while mobile service providers have accepted the new NTC order without major resistance, they have requested that the implementation be deferred from December 2009 to January 2010. Implementing the new charging scheme involves enormous network and technical modifications, it said. “To avoid service disruptions and drop in service quality, mobile operators avoid implementing any major adjustments during December, which is historically a peak period in terms of mobile services uptake," the report observed. - GMANews.TV