New calling rates start December 6

Thanks to the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) for pushing the "per pulse" rate for voice calls, which will make billings more transparent and reflective of the real costs of a call. This new rate starts today, December 6, 2009, and is applicable only to calls made within the same network for now. The same billing will however be applicable as well to calls made from one network to another on December 16, to give way to the networks' system adjustments. More information about the great news quoted from Inquirer below:

The new scheme does not change the per-minute cost of cell phone calls but it will reflect calls lasting less than a minute.

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.

Thanks to Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile for criticizing the telcos' billing system, for which this new billing system has resulted.

Source: Inquirer.net