De Venecia sues telecommunications companies over high messaging rates

Joey de Venecia

A Quezon City court has ordered the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) and three telecommunications companies to answer a damage suit filed by businessman Jose “Joey” de Venecia III in connection with their failure to comply with the reduced fees for interconnected text messages.

Judge Ralph Lee of QC Regional Trial Court Branch 83 has directed the NTC, Globe Telecoms Inc., Smart Communications Inc. and Digitel Communications Inc. to submit their answers within 10 days.

In an order dated May 17, the court set the first hearing on De Venecia’s petition on May 23 at 10 a.m.

Last week, De Venecia lodged a civil case and asked the court to stop the telcos from charging more than 80 centavos for interconnected texts in light of an NTC memorandum setting the interconnection fee at 15 centavos.

Writ of mandamus

He also sought a writ of mandamus to compel the NTC to “promptly resolve” the issue of the 15-centavo fee being challenged by telcos.

De Venecia, son of former Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr., also asked to be awarded at least P2,000 a month retroactive to December 2011 “due to the illegal collection of more than 80 centavos per interconnected SMS.”

This is apart from the P100,000 in exemplary damages that the petitioner is seeking “for the good of the public.”

De Venecia asked for a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction to stop the respondents from imposing text messaging rates higher than  80 centavos.

The civil suit was based on an NTC memorandum on Oct. 24, 2011, regulating interconnection rates for text messages at a rate not higher than 15 centavos per message.

Prior to the ruling, the interconnection charge imposed by telcos was 35 centavos.

De Venecia said the new fees were supposed to take effect on Nov. 30, 2011, but the telcos still continued to charge P1 for each text message sent to rival couriers.

Motion to dismiss

After receiving complaints from subscribers, the NTC issued a show cause order directing the telcos to explain their failure to lower their text messaging rates by at least 20 centavos.

The three telecommunication firms then filed a motion to dismiss before the NTC, citing lack of jurisdiction due to deregulation.

De Venecia pointed out that under the law, the NTC, despite deregulation, “retains the residual power to fix rates where there is a cartel or combination in restraint of trade, where free competition does not exist or does not function well and the public is affected.”  Julie M. Aurelio