House approves bill liberalizing Internet-based telephone services

The House of Representatives has approved on third and final reading a bill that would totally liberalize Internet-based telephone services in the country.

Under House Bill 5284 or the proposed Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VOIP) Act, telecommunications, 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," Villafuerte 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 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 five US cents from 40 cents 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 more than 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.

In the US alone, Villafuerte 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 (the network provider‚s) broadband service.

Besides Villafuerte, the other authors of HB 5284 are Reps. Clavel Martinez, Abraham Mitra, Simeon Kintanar, Rufino Biazon, Janette Garin and Eufrocino Codilla.

Villafuerte said the bill, once enacted, would improve and reinforce existing NTC guidelines for VOIP service providers.

The NTC has already approved the applications of four prospective VOIP service providers. Five other entities still have pending applications. Under NTC rules, service providers must have a capital of at least P10 million, while resellers must post a P5-million performance bond.