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Court of Appeals stops refund order of NTC

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.

Yugatech 728x90 Reno7 Series

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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Avatar for Abe Olandres

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

5 Responses

  1. Avatar for kayo-naman kayo-naman says:

    kayo naman
    nawalan na ba talaga kayo ng tiwala sa mga courts natin?

    karapatan naman ng mga telco humingi ng TRO

    sana kahit konting tiwala mag iwan naman kayo
    para doon sa mga naiwang matinong husgado natin

  2. Avatar for eric jay eric jay says:

    bayaran mode – usual practice in PH.

  3. Avatar for kore kore says:

    Magkano kaya binayad ng mga telco sa Court of Appeals?

  4. Avatar for Paolo Paolo says:

    Pano naging value added service ang sms when it is considered a primary form of communication?8

  5. Avatar for Sean Sean says:

    Binayaran na ang Court of appeals

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