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DIGITEL
Telecommunications Philippines Inc., or Digitel, will
change its foreign currency adjustment (FCA) rate to
yearly from the current monthly mode.
Digitel
senior vice president William Pamintuan said in an
interview Thursday this is a plan, which the company is
seriously considering amid the continued strength of the
peso.
“We are
looking into the application of FCA on yearly basis
instead of monthly in view of the strength of our peso,”
he said.
Digitel
subscribers would benefit from a lower foreign exchange
rate as their monthly landline fees also drop when the
peso strengthens.
Digitel
residential subscribers pay an average of P700 a month
and businesses P1,200.
Pamintuan said Digitel may file an application with the
National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) about the
company’s plan to use a yearly rate for currency
adjustments.
“We have
not formally filed an application, because we are still
evaluating the mechanics. We will file one as soon as we
have thoroughly studied this. The benefit of this plan
for the consumers is having a fixed FCA instead of a
fluctuating FCA,” Pamintuan said.
The
phone unit of JG Summit Holdings Inc. realized P1.7
billion in foreign exchange gains during the first six
months of the year, from a loss of P252.6 million a year
earlier.
The
gains helped Digitel trim losses P297.5 million, from
P1.44 billion in the same comparable period.
Phone
giant Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT)
already sought approval by the commission to amend the
foreign currency adjustment mode, from monthly to
yearly, using the previous year’s exchange rate as the
basis.
The new
formula, PLDT said, will be used to cover FCA
implementation for the rest of 2007, using the average
peso-dollar rate from July 2006 to June 2007.
PLDT
said a yearly currency adjustment rate will result in
predictable monthly charges and shield consumers from
currency fluctuations.
As a
rule of thumb, every 10-centavo adjustment in the
exchange rate translates to a one-percent increase or
decrease in the company’s rate base.
PLDT’s
present base of reference for currency adjustment is P11
to $1, or the rate as of
August 12, 1983 when its local service rates were approved.
In a
separate interview, Globe Telecom president Gerardo
Ablaza said the cellular firm has no immediate plans to
adjust the FCA rate mechanism on a yearly basis.
“Our NTC
approval for FCA is on a monthly basis. I think this is
still the appropriate period given the exchange rate
movements,” he said. |
