Category: sms refund

Court of Appeals junks SMS refund order to customers

Abe Olandres

In 2014, Smart, Sun and PLDT approached the Court of Appeals to stop the Php7 billion refund ordered by the NTC and reduce the rate of text messages to Php0.80.

In June 27, the CA has announced its ruling and stated that the NTC did not have legal basis and did not follow due process. It further adds that a reduced inter-connection charges between telcos do not automatically mean cost of SMS should also go down.

The Court of Appeals also struck down the order to issue a refund to customers.

NTC made the order to reduce SMS charges and issue a refund back in November 20, 2012 and May 7, 2014. The NTC is expected to file a motion for reconsideration.

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Court of Appeals stops refund order of NTC

Abe Olandres Leave a comment

The Court of Appeals has placed a TRO (temporary restraining order) on the demand of the NTC for a refund of almost Php7 billion to subscribers. The TRO was granted this week after telcos filed an appeal last May.

The TRO is effective for 60 days upon payment of a bond of Php500,000 by the appellant which is Sun Cellular. The court is also giving NTC 10 days to show cause, otherwise the TRO might become permanent.

sms refund

Last May, the NTC has ordered all telcos to refund their subscribers for over-charging after a decision was made back in 2011 that SMS should only cost Php0.80 instead of Php1.00. This was due to the fact that the inter-connection rates were adjusted from Php0.35 to just Php0.15 allowing for the Php0.20 reduced cost to be passed on to consumers.

However, since then, the telcos have not reduced the price of their SMS rates and continue to charge subscribers Php1.00 per regular SMS. The NTC has computed that because of this, telcos owe the consumers about Php7 billion.

After asking for motion for reconsideration from the NTC, the telcos have escalated the issue to the Court of Appeals.

The appeal has now been granted due to several reasons:

* Telcos claim that the NTC has no power to make such orders for a refund.

* SMS is considered a “value added service” and thus, exempted from tariff regulations.

Aside from Sun Cellular, Globe and Smart have also filed similar but separate petitions in the court for the same issue.

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Telcos file appeal against Php7B SMS refund

Bob Freking Leave a comment

Since late 2011, the SMS rates of telcos should have been at Php0.80 per text message as ordered by the National Telecommunications Commission. Failing to comply, local telcos have been required by the NTC to refund the multibillion-peso amount to their subscribers. Now, said telcos have approached the Court of Appeals to stop the Php7 billion refund and the reduced rate of Php0.80.

sms

Earlier this month, the NTC has junked the telcos’ motions for reconsideration, and now they are applying for a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the refund.

We wondered how telcos can possibly refund the multi-billion peso amount to the subscribers a few weeks ago, and we have an article dedicated for that right here.

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How will telcos refund the Php7B they owe subscribers?

Abe Olandres Leave a comment

Fresh from the announcement of NTC that regular SMS rates should have been Php0.80 instead of Php1.00 since 2011, it has estimated that telcos owe prepaid/postpaid subscribers as much as Php7B worth of refunds.

So the next question is, how will subscribers get back that Php7 billion that they overpaid?

According to NTC, there are several ways:

Refunds could be in a form prepaid credits or through billing for postpaid subscribers according to Edgardo Cabarios, director for Common Carriers Authorization at NTC. Keep in mind that the charges only covers the inter-network and regular text messages not covered by promos like unlimited or combo-package offers.

Here are some likely methods we think they could do:

* Telcos can auto-credit each subscriber SIM with additional SMS load based on their average consumption in the last 3 months. The 25% (Php0.20/Php0.80) top-up will continue to be added every month for the next 4 years. Example — if you average 1000 SMS per month in the last 3 months, you get a free SMS top-up of 250 text messages next month.

* Reduce rates of all regular SMS from the supposed Php0.80 to Php0.60 until 2018. After that, they can return to the prescribed Php0.80 rate.

* Free regular SMS for the next 12 months. Though this is highly unlikely, telcos can waive all fees related to sending regular SMS in the next 12 months (representing 25% of the last 4 years).

Or, if it’s going to be really hard to compute the equitable sharing of refunds, why not just donate the entire amount of Php7 billion to charity or an academic institution or organization?

The post How will telcos refund the Php7B they owe subscribers? appeared first on YugaTech | Philippines, Tech News & Reviews.

How will telcos refund the Php7B they owe subscribers?

Abe Olandres Leave a comment

Fresh from the announcement of NTC that regular SMS rates should have been Php0.80 instead of Php1.00 since 2011, it has estimated that telcos owe prepaid/postpaid subscribers as much as Php7B worth of refunds.

So the next question is, how will subscribers get back that Php7 billion that they overpaid?

According to NTC, there are several ways:

Refunds could be in a form prepaid credits or through billing for postpaid subscribers according to Edgardo Cabarios, director for Common Carriers Authorization at NTC. Keep in mind that the charges only covers the inter-network and regular text messages not covered by promos like unlimited or combo-package offers.

Here are some likely methods we think they could do:

* Telcos can auto-credit each subscriber SIM with additional SMS load based on their average consumption in the last 3 months. The 25% (Php0.20/Php0.80) top-up will continue to be added every month for the next 4 years. Example — if you average 1000 SMS per month in the last 3 months, you get a free SMS top-up of 250 text messages next month.

* Reduce rates of all regular SMS from the supposed Php0.80 to Php0.60 until 2018. After that, they can return to the prescribed Php0.80 rate.

* Free regular SMS for the next 12 months. Though this is highly unlikely, telcos can waive all fees related to sending regular SMS in the next 12 months (representing 25% of the last 4 years).

Or, if it’s going to be really hard to compute the equitable sharing of refunds, why not just donate the entire amount of Php7 billion to charity or an academic institution or organization?

The post How will telcos refund the Php7B they owe subscribers? appeared first on YugaTech | Philippines, Tech News & Reviews.