TXTPower welcomes zero texting charges, bats for refund
TXTPower welcomes the calls by the DOTC secretary and several members of Congress, for the removal of text messaging charges.
At the moment, we hope the DOTC secretary has ordered his staff to calculate how much the telcos owe consumers since they started charging for text messaging. All these illegal charges must be refunded. The refunds should also cover the VAT illegally levied on text messaging, not just the illegal telco charges.
The NTC and the BIR should work together to find out how much the telcos and the government owe the consumers and to find out the quickest and most fair way of undertaking a refund.
We have long argued that text messaging is a built-in service of the GSM standard used by telcos and should thus be provided for free but government refuses to listen. We are thus surprised by the sudden turn around of the DOTC secretary and members of Congress. We expect them to uphold the law regarding franchises and to correct their oversight that allowed the telcos to fleece consumers up to now.
We are prepared to face the telcos, the NTC and the BIR before any forum because we have long waited for this chance to expose the highway robbery on consumers: the mislabeling of text messaging as a value-added service, the NTC’s assent, the illegal charging and the illegal slapping of VAT and the long silence over these by the government.
We have friends who are experts in the fields of mobile telephony and electronics and communications engineering who back us up and would surely sound advice to the DOTC secretary and Congress on the technological basis for removing text messaging charges.
Comments (4 comments)
free text will be prone to abuse. it will lead to delayed deliveries, failed sending, and congested networks. furthermore, those selling eloads as their source of income will be significantly impacted.
identiti / May 24th, 2008, 9:18 pm
that may or may not happen, identiti.
the point of the proposal is that texting services may not cost anything at all. wala pala itong dagdag na gastos sa mga telcos dahil built-in ito sa gsm technology. therefore, the charging of rates and taxes may really be illegal. in other words, the telcos and the government may actually owe us money.
as to the quality of services, that is for the telcos to maintain. technology continues to be improved. what is interesting is that no matter how technology has progressed, the rates remain generally high, no thanks to cartel-like operations and the seeming incompetence of government in championing consumer rights and welfare.
tonyo / May 25th, 2008, 12:55 am
when text messaging 1st came out, it was free. that means the telcos can afford it but the rationale behind imposing charges was to control to the overusage of pinoys of the service. the telcos didn’t anticipate that pinoys would take to text messaging so completely.
now that all telcos are offering their own version of unlimited texting they are showing us that they can afford to make it free but are imposing a modicum of control to prevent what happened before from happening again.
also, i agree with identiti’s point on the income of eload retailers being severely impacted if text messaging becomes free again. since eload came out thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of retailers have benefited economically from the pinoy’s love for text messaging. i have yet to hear anyone complaining about eload retailers.
shall we at least credit the telcos for providing income to subscribers instead of just generating it from them. or should i say us since i’m a subscriber too
hreynes / May 27th, 2008, 1:59 am
free text messages would obviously lead to a lot of abuse. companies and individuals will bombard our phone with spam and scams much like on email.
i have yet to see a country were sms is absolutely free.
la_ciudadista / June 7th, 2008, 9:08 pm
What do you think?
You must be logged in to post a comment.