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Tuesday, September 05, 2006
Congress OKs Internet-based phone services liberalization
The House of Representatives has approved on third and final reading a bill that would totally liberalize Internet-based telephone services.
Under House Bill 5284 —the proposed Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) Act —telecommunication, Internet service and cable TV providers would be required to extend equal capacity access to all entities supplying web-based telephone services.
Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Villafuerte, one of the authors of the bill, said the measure expressly forbids network operators from discriminating against VoIP service providers, and from degrading in any way the access of their subscribers.
“Consumers, including small traders and the families of overseas workers, are entitled to benefit from cheap telephone services over the Internet,” Villa-fuerte said, adding that VoIP would also spur business activity and build up the country’s competitiveness in the global information and communications technology (ICT) market.
VoIP involves the routing of voice signals or conversations over the Internet, or through any other Internet Protocol-based network, instead of via the traditional circuit-based technology.
Villafuerte noted that with VoIP, the cost of international calls is expected to drop to as low as $0.05 from $0.40 per minute.
He said VoIP services would become “irresistibly popular in the country in the months ahead as more Filipinos gain easier access to the Internet.”
The number of Internet users in the Philippines is projected to double to 13.5 million by 2008, from just 5.8 million this year, according to the global ICT research and advisory firm XMG Inc.
Low price
In the US alone, Villa-fuerte said over 300,000 consumers are signing up every month for low-priced Internet telephony, bringing the total VoIP subscribers there to over seven million as of June.
Under HB 5284, now pending Senate action, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) would strictly oversee the liberalization of VOIP services, and ensure that such services become readily available to the general public.
The bill explicitly bans “prohibitive” network interconnection charges.
The NTC would ascertain the rates to be levied by network providers.
Regulators would see to it that VoIP service providers enjoy a fair and reasonable margin, in order to keep them viable.
Network providers would also be disallowed from requiring their subscribers to purchase or use, or to refrain from purchasing or using any VoIP services as a precondition to obtaining broadband service.
Besides Villafuerte, the other authors of HB 5284 are Reps. Clavel Martinez (Cebu, 4th), Abraham Mitra, Simeon Kintanar (Cebu, 2nd), Rufino Biazon, Janette Garin and Eufrocino Codilla.
Villafuerte said the bill will reinforce existing NTC guidelines for VoIP service providers. (PR)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (September 5, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
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