Editorial

Money for nothing

IT?S high time somebody did something about the way that the cell phone companies, already making money hand over fist, are swindling consumers by taking their money without providing the corresponding services.

We refer here to the odious practice among cell phone companies to expire pre-paid load credits after a set number of days?usually 30 days for a load of P300. The credits expire faster when the top-up amount is less than that, so a load of P30 expires in a mere three days; and a P10 credit disappears after just a day.

A pre-paid service, as the name suggests, involves the payment of a fee in exchange for a promise to render services at a future date. Expiring electronic credits, particularly after an unreasonably short time, deprives consumers of services for which they have already paid, and in effect cheats them out of their hard-earned cash. To make matters worse, this kind of credit expiration is more likely to hurt the poor, who cannot afford to top-up their pre-paid accounts by very much.

From this perspective, we welcome the decision by the House of Representatives to compel telecommunications carriers?who all operate on the strength of congressional franchises?to justify this questionable practice at hearings before two panels.

We also look forward to an explanation from the National Telecommunications Commission on why it has consistently failed to bring down the cost of communications services and done so little to protect the rights of consumers.

Allowing electronic credits to expire after just a matter of days is ridiculous. It gives the phone companies money for nothing and leaves consumers on the short end of the bargain.