Senator Imee Marcos
MANILA -- A resolution has been filed at the Senate urging the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) to immediately reduce and set a strict one-centavo price ceiling on the cost of text messages.
According to a statement on Thursday, Senator Imee Marcos filed Senate Resolution No. 6 with the aim of balancing the business interest of the country’s telecommunication providers and make sure that they abide by the global trend toward “cheaper and faster services” to the public.
“One peso is way too much to pay for every text message you send,” Marcos said.
Marcos noted that the public should already enjoy lower charges, particularly on the short messaging service (SMS) or text messages, which she described as a “practically costless forwarding service that piggybacks” on a readily available signal.
"Even if text messages cost only one centavo each, the three telco providers would still be able to profit from that," Marcos said.
“The so-called 'handshake' or persistent communication between a cellular communications tower and a handset allows the delivery of text messages, which are small and simple relative to more data-intensive internet-based communications,” she added.
The senator noted that lowering the fees for SMS will reduce the cost of doing business, especially for small-scale entrepreneurs, as well as encourage the flow of information and knowledge-sharing among lower-income users.
"Cheaper text messages and a strict price ceiling are long overdue," Marcos said. (PNA)
