Telcos "Comply" with NTC Per-Pulse Charging Scheme
Saturday, December 12, 2009 ADVERTISEMENTS
Captain's Log Stardate -314947.04
Last week, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) ordered all Telcos to implement the per-pulse charging scheme as the default rates for mobile subscribers, Under the new rates, telecom firms will be allowed to charge a "flagdown" rate of P3 for the first two pulses, or a total of 12 seconds. Every succeeding pulse will then be billed. Each minute has 10 six-second pulses.
To illustrate, assuming the prevailing rate is P7.50 per minute, every pulse after the flagdown rate will cost 56 centavos. After the first minute, the per-pulse charge will increase to 75 centavos.
The resulting cost of a call per minute will still be P7.50 but calls under one minute will cost less. A 30-second call will cost P4.69.
It's been one week since NTC issued that order. Did our local telcos comply? Well partly. Globe and Smart issued these statements so as to show they have "complied".
GLOBE:In compliance with NTC Memorandum Circular No. 05-07-2009 entitled Guidelines on Unit of Billing of Mobile Voice Service mandating per pulse charging beginning December 6, 2009, per second charging for Globe-Globe/TM and TM-TM/Globe is available via the dialing sequence 2329xxxxxxxxx for Globe (replace the 0 at the beginning of the Globe/TM number you are calling with 232) and 8039xxxxxxxxx for TM (replace the 0 at the beginning of the Globe/TM number you are calling with 803).
Per second rates when using the aforementioned dialing sequence as follows:
* - P0.10/second for Globe-Globe/TM and TM-TM/Globe calls Monday to Saturday
* - P0.05/second for Globe-Globe/TM and TM-TM/Globe calls Sunday
Minimum maintaining balance of P7.50 required for Globe, P6.50 required for TM.
Applicable to Globe Postpaid, Globe Prepaid, Globe Tattoo Prepaid, and TM.
SMART:Smart Communications, Inc. (SMART) has implemented the per-pulse billing system for mobile voice calls effective December 6, 2009.
The new billing uses a six-second pulse charging system applicable to domestic SMART-to-SMART or on-net calls.It will apply to postpaid (Smart Gold and Infinity) and prepaid services (Smart Buddy and Talk ‘N Text).
A flag-down rate of P3 will be charged on the first two pulses (or 12 seconds) and P0.31 (for Talk 'N Text) and P0.43 (for Smart Buddy, Smart Gold, and Infinity) on the succeeding pulses of the first minute. For succeeding minutes, P0.55 (for Talk ’N Text) and P0.65 (for Smart Buddy, Smart Gold, and Infinity) per pulse will be charged.
To call per-pulse, the following prefixes must be used, plus the number being called:
Smart Gold and Infinity: *5433
Smart Buddy: *5434
Talk ‘N Text: *2255
Subscribers can also opt to be billed per minute, P5.50 for Talk 'N Text and P6.50 for Smart Buddy, Smart Gold, and Infinity, or to subscribe to unlimited or bucket-price service offerings.
Call types supported by the per-pulse billing scheme are call features such as call forwarding and teleconferencing. At present, rates apply to calls made within the SMART and Talk ‘N Text network only.
Sneaky don't you think? :~)
*Computer end log*Labels: mobile
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THERE ARE 1 COMMENT(S) ON THIS POST:
You bet it's sneaky. The awful part is when you text someone you have to revert to original 0917 or 0918 as the messages will not get through. Meaning you have to store 2 numbers under the same contact one for calling and another for texting. The telcos are setting us up to make a mistake so we still get charged regular rates.
Globe's 232 prefix works but I find that smart's *5433 postpaid or *5434 for prepaid smart does not work! I used my smart prepaid to call my husbands smart line and it says the call cannot be completed as dialled.
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