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CLICK
Communications Inc. is asking regulators to extend its
authority to continue offering voice over Internet
protocol (VoIP) service.
In a
filing with the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC),
Click said it has substantially complied with the terms
and conditions of its provisional authority to install,
operate and maintain domestic and international VoIP
data and other related services that are based on
Internet protocol and platform. Its permit was issued
last April 21, 2006.
“The
issuance of the extension of provisional authority or
issuance of certificate of public convenience and
necessity is essential to enable [Click] to roll out the
service,” the company said in the filing.
At
present, Click is negotiating for interconnection
arrangements with other carriers.
VoIP
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.
It has
been classified by the NTC as a value-added service.
Last
week the NTC said it will amend the rules on VoIP due to
complaints of service providers.
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 is properly
identified. The VoIP service providers then pay a
transit charge of 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. |
