NTC orders telco to stop charging for chikka.com

**silver_corolla** · February 22nd, 2005 08:37 AM

NTC orders telco to stop charging for chikka.com

Posted 11:23pm (Mla time) Feb 11, 2005
By Erwin Lemuel Oliva
INQ7.net

THE NATIONAL Telecommunications Commission (NTC) on Thursday ordered all mobile phone networks to stop charging local subscribers receiving text messages from chikka.com, a local service provider.
Chikka.com is a Philippine-based company offering Internet-based text messenger services.

NTC Commissioner Ronald Solis said that chikka.com is not authorized
to charge subscribers for a premium service it was offering since it is not registered with the agency as a value-added service provider.

"During the meeting of the Technical Working Group of the House Committee on Information and Communications Technology and the House
Committee on Trade and Industry on February 7,2005, it was mentioned that subscribers who received text messages from chikka.com are charged P2.50 per short text message. Our records show that such service is not registered with the Commission," Solis said in a written order sent to five mobile phone companies.

Edgardo Cabarios, director of the NTC’s Common Carrier Department, told reporters that Chikka.com was not supposed to charge a premium price for the text messaging service since it is not even registered in the agency as a value-added service provider.

"We always thought it was a free service until recently," he added.

Sought for comment, Chikka.com spokesperson Junie Agcaoli said that it would issue a statement only after it sees the actual NTC order.

Chikka.com offers various Internet-to-mobile phone services such as Web-based text messaging. In its website, it indicates that its text messenger is a free service allowing local subscribers to send text messages to another local subscriber via a PC connected to the Internet. It recently bagged a deal with US carriers, allowing local subscribers to send text messages to US-based users.

Chikka.com's service however allows the recipient of the free text message to reply. In this case, the recipient has to pay a premium charge of P2.50 per message.

Users can download the Chikka.com text messenger software for free.

**yebo** · February 22nd, 2005 10:20 AM

nakialam na naman ang gobyerno. pag nawala ang chikka.com susunugin ko ntc! saan ba building nyan nang ma-plano ko na.

**BlueBimmer** · February 22nd, 2005 10:22 AM

kala ko ba libre ang chikka??? labo naman tsong

**IceColdBeer** · February 22nd, 2005 10:28 AM

Supposedly, it's free to receive text in the Philippines and they charge you P2.50 for the reply. Don't know why they are charging received text now. Perhaps they just wanted to entice many subs and then charge them later on as what is happening now.

**yebo** · February 22nd, 2005 10:28 AM

libre po ang text from computer to cell phone. may bayad ang text from cell phone to computer, P2.50. so if the cell phone user sends 1 text for every message received, bale P1.25 lang for each message (2 messages sent at P2.50). now if you are like me who is out of the philippines half of the time, P1.25 per message is a bargain. cheap as cheap can get.

papatungan na naman yan ng tax! so yung P2.50 maging P3 na yan. bwiset na ntc yan!

**jim** · February 22nd, 2005 10:29 AM

wala namang singil ang chikka. yung nagrereply from cell to chikka ang nacha-charge tapos nadadagdagan ng credits yung chikka account mo. hay naku basta alam na mapagkakakitaan nakikialam talaga ang gobyerno. tsk tsk tsk....

**chieffy** · February 22nd, 2005 11:05 AM

bulok bulok bulok!...wala na naman makurakot ang mga amp&^*() kaya kung ano ano nakikita ng mga iyan...

**silver_corolla** · February 22nd, 2005 07:21 PM

both sender and recipient ay makakaltasan... this is how:

from computer: 237163blahblah send sms to 63ekek. (free) and turns off his computer.
63ekek now becomes 237163ekek...
from mobile: 237163ekek replies to 237163blahblah. (Php 2.50)
from mobile: 237163blahblah replies to 237163ekek. (Php 2.50)
and so it goes on....

**mazdamazda** · February 22nd, 2005 07:30 PM

"We always thought it was a free service until recently," he added.

er... ba't kayo galit sa NTC?

e mukhang pro-consumer move ang ginawa naman ng NTC. isipin mo, dapat hindi sila pwede maningil tapos naningil pala sila.

**silver_corolla** · February 22nd, 2005 07:34 PM

actually i'm in favor of NTC!

nabiktima na ako niyan
may mga nagtetext kasi chikka gamit
pero pag pasok sa inbox ko name nila
kaya akala ko same # but if you will check carefully may additional numbers.