PROMPTED by complaints of service providers and the Congress, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) will amend the rules on Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP.

The complaints were basically about the high access charge imposed by phone companies. The rates are negotiated between the service provider and phone company, which are then kept from being made public.

The commission will call for a public hearing to address the problem.

For now, the NTC has recommended additional rules for the service. A recommendation is to ease access charge—the fee for calls that pass through a network carrier.

Under the proposed rules, VoIP service providers that access a public switched telephone network, or PSTN, should have an interconnection deal with at least one duly enfranchised and authorized PSTN operator.

The operator is responsible for routing VoIP calls to and from the networks of other operators and sees to it that VoIP traffic routed to other operators are properly identified. The VoIP service providers then pay a transit charge not more than P0.25 per minute.

The NTC also recommends that access charge for VoIP calls that start and end with a certain PSTN should be at par with the applicable access charge for national distance calls, which is not more than P1 per minute.

The same rules apply to VoIP providers requiring access to the cellular mobile-telephone network, or CMTN. Here, VoIP providers pay transit charges to the cellular firm, which should also not be more than 25 centavos per minute; the access charge should not be higher than P.150 per minute.

“The access charge paid to PSTN is different from the access charge paid to CMTN because of mobility. There is premium in mobility,” the NTC said.

 VoIP has been classified by the NTC as a value-added service. Phone firms, such as Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT), insist that VoIP is not VAS.

VoIP is a technology, which allows phone calls to be made on broadband Internet connection instead of a regular phone line. VoIP services can work over a computer, a special phone or a traditional phone with an adaptor.

PLDT told the commission that this service is in place as part of the voice telephony market. As such, only licensed phone firms should be allowed to provide VoIP.

“It is still the PLDT group’s contention that VoIP should not be classified as a VAS as ruled by the NTC. Based on the economic concept of ‘substitutability’ commonly adopted in defining market and its scope, internet telephony can legitimately be classified as part of the voice telephony market,” PLDT added in a letter to the commission.

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Complaints push NTC to change VoIP rules  

PROMPTED by complaints of service providers and the Congress, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) will amend the rules on Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP.

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