Smart and Globe continue to defy NTC

Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile yesterday denounced Smart and Globe for continuing to defy an order by the NTC to implement the new pulse voice call charging scheme. Under the new scheme, telecoms firms are supposed to charge on a “per pulse” basis instead of “per minute.”

“Globe and Smart are once again trying to flex their muscles, twisting the rules for their own benefit” — Sen. Enrile

According to Sen. Enrile’s press release, instead of complying with the order, Globe advised clients to dial a prefix to be charged under the new scheme while Smart didn’t even bothered to inform their clients about the new charging scheme.

“During the committee hearing at the Senate, Globe, Smart and Sun Cellular agreed to follow the new NTC ruling. Instead, I learned that Globe is treating this as a promo, requiring their subscribers to dial a certain number together with the cellphone number, for them to be billed on a “per pulse basis.”

Only Sun Cellular was able to comply with the new NTC directive. In the Philippines, the cellular telecoms market is shared by 3 major players–Globe (controlled by the Ayalas), Smart (owned by PLDT), and Sun (controlled by Digitel). There are more than 55 million cellular phone users in the Philippines. According to Wikipedia, “…each mobile phone user in the Philippines is sending out at least 10 text messages a day compared to about 3 text messages per user in the United Kingdom.”

You can read the entire article on Sen. Enrile’s website

Tagged as: Digitel, Globe, Juan Ponce Enrile, NTC, senate, Smart, voice call