NTC’s New Moves

Depending on your inclination, you’d either be worried or delighted with some of the policy moves of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC). It seems that having been stumped by the telcos at their ability to regulate SMS and related issues, they’re no longer satisfied with issuing their own rules, they’re expanding out to other branches of government.  On the VoIP issue, Congress is all set to pass a law if the NTC’s VoIP rules are contested in court. On cellular phone policy, INQ7 reports that Congress is also stepping in after a prolonged litigation has successfully delayed the implementation of consumer-friendly NTC rules.  Today, another INQ7 story discloses that the NTC is cooperating with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to regulate text spam.

For some, these are welcome developments.  They show the NTC’s unwavering determination to solve these public poicy issues and the Commission’s creativity in seeking out alternate policy responses. 

For others, these display the Commission’s unwillingness to utilize its own levers against the telcos.  As to the Text Spam issue, the NTC can threaten to revoke the telco’s license to provide SMS if certain spamming complaints are not addressed.  After all, all of these spam messages go through the telcos.  In the case of their content providers, it’s a simple matter for the telcos to regulate. In the case of others, the telcos can easily trace the occurrence of spam based on traffic analysis.  There’s no reason why the NTC can’t do this.