SC reaffirms ruling, blocking NTC lowering of SMS fee to PHP 0.80

The Supreme Court (SC) has officially denied the National Telecommunications Commission's (NTC) petition to lower SMS message rates to PHP 0.80 and refund subscribers. It has done this via a Court of Appeals ruling blocking the NTC's mandate.

Xiaomi14 Texting

The petition was based on a circular released by the NTC in 2011, pushing for a decrease in off-net interconnection rates (network-to-network backend fees) from PHP 0.35 to PHP 0.15. This difference of PHP 0.20 was supposed to make its way to the consumers, thus resulting in the PHP 1.00 to 0.80 drop.

很遗憾，这并未实现，因此 NTC 在 2012 年发布了另一项命令，要求主要电信运营商将短信费用限制在每条最高 0.80 菲律宾比索。此事多次被推进，包括在 2016/17 年向最高法院提出上诉。

NTC 声称，电信公司多年来未按要求配合短信费率的降低，这意味着它们有义务退还多年来每条短信 0.20 菲律宾比索的费用——根据内部计算，总计超过 170 亿菲律宾比索，返还给所有用户。

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好吧，最高法院终于以声称2011年通函中没有明确指令/要求降低消费者短信费率为由结束了此案。根据结论，似乎因为如2011年文件所述，跨网互连费用实际上已经下降，这里已经没有更多可讨论的内容了。

Mathematically speaking, this reduction only increased revenues for the telcos due to the fact that the PHP 0.20 "discount" failed to make its way to everyday SMS users. What do you think of this ruling?

What did the Supreme Court rule regarding the NTC's petition to lower SMS rates?

The Supreme Court denied the NTC's petition to lower SMS rates to PHP 0.80 and refund subscribers.

Why did the Supreme Court deny the petition?

The Court cited a lack of an explicit directive in the 2011 circular for consumer SMS rate reductions.

What was the basis for the NTC's claim that telecoms should refund PHP 0.20 per text?

The NTC claimed telecoms did not cooperate with SMS rate reductions, obligating refunds totaling PHP 17+ billion.

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