NTC Memorandum Circular on Interconnection Charges for Short Messages Services and Voice Service

On the instruction of President Rodrigo Duterte to make goods and services affordable and accessible to consumers, particularly the marginalized, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez has immediately put forward the proposal to reduce the telco interconnection rates to the New Major Player Oversight Committee. The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) then issued Department Order No. 002 directing the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to study and formulate the guidelines that will bring down the cost of interconnection . In the draft Memorandum Circular (MC) drafted by the NTC following a study, interconnection charges were reduced to P 0.50 per minute from P 2.50 per minute for voice service and P 0.05 per text from P 0.15 per text for SMS. A public hearing was conducted to enable telecommunication companies to comment and submit their position papers pertaining to the MC . On July 19, 2018, the final MC was