NTC threatens to cancel permits of erring content providers
By Alvin Elchico, ABS-CBN News | 06/17/2009 6:09 PM
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MANILA - Value-added service providers may be suspended or even be stripped of their license to offer ringtones and wallpapers if mobile phone subscribers continue to complain of prepaid credit disappearance as allegedly caused by their services, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) warned.
Erring content providers are only charged P200 for every violation. Still, NTC Commissioner Ruel Canobas urged subscribers to file a complaint with the NTC if they continue to encounter problems of alleged diminishing load credit or downloads of wallpapers, ringtones, news, and horoscope without their permission.
According to Canobas, consumers must not be charged with downloads which they did not even ask for. He said content providers should first notify a subscriber whether he or she wants to avail of a certain service, even if it is only an upgrade.
Earlier, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile complained that he lost over P540 worth of prepaid load credit, and called a Senate hearing to look into the billing practices of telecommunications firms. He claimed that many subscribers have also complained of the same problems.
Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez has pushed for government metering to monitor all calls and text messages to check whether the prepaid credit to ensure that a subscriber's prepaid credit is used properly. This, he said, will also gauge the revenues of telecommunications companies, clearing speculations that they are overpricing their services.
Suarez is the lawmaker who proposed a P0.05 tax and a P0.50 fixed fee on text messaging, which was heavily contested by the country's major telecommunications firms.
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