Despite the protests from several groups, the Land Transportation Office (LTO) and its private sector partner Stradcom Corp. will proceed with the implementation of the radio frequency identification (RFID) project for vehicles this year.  "We are going to get the approval of the National Telecommunication Commission for the project," Mr. Vince Dizon, Stradcom vice president for public relations, said during a consultation with various transport groups at the main office of the LTO in Quezon City last week.

Before this, the NTC had threatened to confiscate the RFID units that the LTO plans to install on all vehicles in the country, saying these gadgets need to be approved by the government regulator.  The project involves the use of RFID tags or microchips that pick up and send signals as well as proximity readers that transmit signals to the tags.  LTO chief Arturo Lomibao said the project allows electronic verification of vehicle identity and data, which would enable the LTO to detect colorum and out of line  public utility vehicles.

The National Telecommunication Commission (NTC) has assured that it will begin implementing the new billing system for mobile voice calls by the first week of December, ahead of the Christmas season when the volume of communication usually doubles.  "This is expected to benefit the 75 million mobile phone subscribers during the Christmas season," NTC deputy commissioner Douglas Mallillin said.

Mallillin said that while the mobile phone operators were asking for another delay in the implementation of Memorandum Circular No. 05-07-2009 until January 31, 2010, he said the telecom providers have been given enough time to prepare for the switch in the billing system.  The circular set at six seconds per pulse the maximum unit of billing for the cellular phone calls of both postpaid or prepaid subscribers.  Currenctly, subscribers are charged P6.50 per minute of call.

It was supposed to take effect in June 2009, but the telecom companies asked for a four-month extension of the preparation period.  Now, the companies wanted to delay it again until January, claiming that they may not be able to handle the large volume of calls when the switch is implemented in December, when the number of voice calls normally peaks. With the current billing system, even calls lasting for less than one minute are charged P6.50.  The new system will bill the first 12 seconds or two pulses as the flag down rate, plus additional charge on every succeeding pulse or six seconds.