Sun Cellular asks court to stop per-pulse billing scheme

The operator of Sun Cellular has joined Globe Telecom, Inc. and Smart Communications, Inc. in asking the appellate court to stop the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) from enforcing a new billing scheme for mobile phone calls. In a petition to the Court of Appeals, Digitel Mobile Philippines, Inc., a unit of Gokongwei-led Digital Telecommunications Phils., Inc. claimed regulators had come out with rates for the new six seconds "per-pulse" billing scheme without due process. "No other hearing was called to receive any supporting or controverting evidence. The NTC merely relied on the report and conclusions drawn by its Common Carrier Authorization Department, which purportedly drew its calculations and assumptions using the annual reports submitted by the mobile phone companies," the firm said. The NTC declined to comment, saying the case was already in court. Digitel also noted that the NTC had not specified in its order that per-pulse billing must be the standard. The per-pulse billing scheme is the latest of a string of new regulations for mobile networks following complaints last year of "vanishing" mobile prepaid credits due to dropped calls and spam text messages, among others. Regulators imposed the scheme so that subscribers are charged only for time consumed. Memorandum Circular 05-07-2009 ordered networks to set up the six seconds per-pulse scheme as the default billing system, not just a promotion or a special offer. Instead of complying, Globe Telecom and Smart Communications, the mobile unit of Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT) Co., have been requiring subscribers to use prefixes, which means changing the first few digits of a mobile phone number, to avail themselves of the new rates. Sun Cellular has not implemented the per-pulse billing even through a prefix. Under the new scheme, calls made within the same network should be charged with a flag-down rate of not more than P3.00 for the first 12 seconds or two pulses. In the first minute, each succeeding six-second pulse will be charged up to P0.56. Every pulse in the succeeding minutes will be charged up to P0.75. Charges for calls should not exceed P7.50 per minute, the highest prevailing rate among telcos. NTC cease-and-desist orders dated Dec. 9 insisted that telcos should have billed phone calls within the same mobile network for every six seconds consumed under the new per-pulse billing scheme starting Dec. 6, and that any difference between the old and new billing should be refunded. Mediaquest Holdings, Inc., a unit of the PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund, has a minority stake in BusinessWorld. — Emilia Narni J. David, BUsinessWorld