NTC stops chikka.com mobile services

The Philippine telecommunication regulator has pulled the rug off the feet of popular mobile messaging services company Chikka Asia. Inc., ordering local mobile carriers to cut off from their networks all of chikka's mobile solutions.

In a memorandum signed by Commissioner Ronald O. Solis on February 9, the National Telecommunication Commission (NTC) said that chikka.com has been illegally operating as a value-added service (VAS) provider, having not registered with the authority since starting operations around 2002.

Mr. Solis noted that the order was handed down after complaints of faulty charging by chikka.com piled way up to the House of Representatives.

Present in China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, United States and the Philippines, chikka.com is an international provider of enhanced mobile messaging services to carriers like Globe Telecom Inc. Innove Communications, Inc, Smart Communications, Inc., Pilipino Telephone Corporation, and Digitel Mobile Philippines, Inc.

Chikka.com is popular among mobile phone subscribers who have access to personal computers. With a chikka.com software downloaded on a PC, a mobile phone subscriber can send short message services (SMS) messages for free instead of paying P1.00 per message using a mobile phone.

From the complaints NTC has been receiving, chikka.com users do not pay when they send messages from their PCs. Recipients, however, are allegedly automatically charged P2.50 per message received in their mobile phone from chikka.com.

In this sense, Mr. Solis said chikka.com all together violates the sender pays principle.' If out of consent subscribers receive messages, they should not be charged. With what we have been hearing, that is how chikka.com operates.

The House Committees on Information and Communication Technology, and on Trade and Industry have been flooded with disenchanted consumers claiming their mobile credit was deducted P2.50 per unsolicited message received from chikka.com.

The barrage of complaints led NTC to visit possible public documents filed by the company, only to find out that chikka.com has not disclosed with the commission its profile, revenue streams and related services.

NTC maintains a list of over 300 VAS providers in the Philippines, which includes internet service providers, mobile and internet content providers, and non-traditional messaging services firms.

The list is kept to ensure that such VAS providers will be accountable to both the government and the public for any anomalous profiteering scheme and other services found below par.

chikka.com affiliates include wireless auction site Bidshot Wireless Services, internet relay chat room for dating Crushcow, and mobile payment solutions Paysetter.

NTC director Edgardo V. Cabarios told BusinessWorld that chikka.com has been rendering premium services that require permission from the commission to offer.

Premium services, Mr. Cabarios defined, are messages priced above P1.00 that is traditionally charged for plain text messages. Such services include ring tones, picture messages, mobile alerts like weather news, traffic updates, and some other subscription-based mobile contents.

To get back to regular business, Mr. Cbarios said chikka.com has to explain to the commission its charging scheme, submit Securities and Exchange Commission documents, and pay P6,000 in annual fees to register as a VAS provider.

The hands of NTC are tied to the Republic Act 7925 [Philippine Public Telecommunications Act of 1995]. As much as there is ground to penalize chikka.com, we cannot do so because there are no penal provisions under the law. We can only order the telcos to stop charging subscribers who receive messages from chikka, Mr. Cabarios said over the telephone. Registration with the NTC is very cheap, we do not know why chikka cannot register.

Officials of chikka.com refused to comment on the NTC decision.

The company's manager Mikey Garovillo said chikka.com will defer comment while waiting for the NTC memorandum, which was actually addressed only to the carriers. He also begged off from requests for comments on the issue of registration.

The office of Dennis B. Mendiola, managing director at chikka.com, also said that Mr. Mendiola is out of the country and cannot comment on the NTC order.

Again, we will not issue any comment for now. What do you see in our website? Then that is how we are charging, Mr. Garovillo said when asked if chikka.com charges P2.50 when it sends unsolicited messages to subscribers.

The country's biggest mobile carrier has assured the NTC of their full cooperation with the NTC.

Smart legal counsel Roy Ibay however told the NTC last week that they would look into complaints about chikka.com transactions done over its network.

He said that according to existing arrangement, chikka.com could only debit P2.50 only if the subscriber has consented to paying premium services.