Sun Cellular gets approval for unlimited call, text service

The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) has allowed Sun Cellular to permanently implement its 12-day unlimited call and text service. Sun Cellular is operated by Digitel Mobile Philippines Inc., the wireless unit of JG Summit Holdings Inc. The service provides subscribers three benefits during the 12-day validity period of their P100 prepaid loads. These are unlimited Sun-to-Sun calls from 12 midnight until 6 p.m.; a special rate of P1 per minute for calls within the network from 6:01 p.m. until 11:59 p.m.; and unlimited Sun-to-Sun texts on a 24-hour basis. Subscribers using the unlimited call service will be automatically cut off after 15 minutes to prevent abuse of network and illegal traffic bypass by unscrupulous users. It took the NTC four months to act on Sun Cellular’s application for a permanent offering of the unlimited service. “Our interim rules states that it is not feasible to offer unlimited text and call services 24 hours a day, seven days a week, without causing network congestion, especially peak hours, which is from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily," said Solis. The rules stated that unlimited service may only be offered during off-peak hours (11p.m. to 6a.m.). On the other hand, calls made during peak hours may automatically be terminated after five minutes by the operator if their disclosed drop call rate cannot be met. Operators, however, may opt to adopt a higher drop calls rate during peak hours for their unlimited voice and text offerings. “This could only mean that cellular operators may actually offer unlimited voice and text offerings even during peak hours. If otherwise, the commission would not have included such a rule in its order," said Sun Cellular manager for legal services Derek Anthony Lim. - GMANews.TV