| Top News |
| Written by Butch Fernandez / Reporter |
| FRIDAY, 26 JUNE 2009 02:35 |
| SEN. Joker Arroyo suspects a long-running “collusion” between National Telecommunications Commission regulators and private telecommunications companies (telcos), to the detriment of millions of mobile-phone subscribers. “I have a feeling that the NTC and the telcos have been in collusion for the past eight years,” Arroyo told reporters a day after the Senate resumed its inquiry into the “disappearing cell-phone e-load scam” exposed earlier by Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile. In an interview, Arroyo observed that the telcos seemed only “too happy” with the court injunction restraining NTC regulators from enforcing the law covering telco operations. He recalled that when the NTC tried to impose regulations against detrimental practices of the telcos, the telcos obtained an injunction from the court and the NTC made like it was fighting the restraining order against them. “But it is inconceivable that an injunction [that is supposed to be a temporary restraining order] would last eight years and the NTC not doing anything about it,” Senator Arroyo added. He disputed NTC claims that the telcos are operating under a deregulated environment, pointing out that the congressional franchises granted to Smart and Globe, for instance, indicate they are under the jurisdiction of the NTC. “So it appears that they [NTC regulators] are too happy they are enjoined from enforcing regulations on the telcos,” he added. Arroyo asserted that the Senate investigating committees, cochaired by Sens. Mar Roxas II and Ramon Revilla Jr., must affirm initial findings of exorbitant rates telcos are charging prepaid and postpaid cellular-phone subscribers, which, he said, enabled telcos to generate profit beyond the 12-percent rate provided in the telco law. “[And] if the committee finds that they [telcos] are engaged in long-time collusion with NTC, their franchises can be revoked,” he warned, saying that if the joint committee inquiry by Roxas and Revilla decides to recommend this action, “I will support it.” This developed as Roxas confirmed that lawmakers are inclined to grant government regulators “more teeth” in performing the NTC mandate as watchdog of the booming telco industry to ensure protection of cellular telephone subscribers. He said among the proposed amendments that senators would introduce in the Public Telecommunications Policy Act of 1995, also known as Republic Act 7925, is a provision that “untie the hands of NTC from imposing strict regulatory guidelines covering telco service providers. |
Sunday, July 26, 2009
062609: Joker sees collusion between NTC, telcos vs cell-phone users
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