From TXTPower:

Consumer advocacy group TXTPower yesterday scored a victory as the National Telecommunications ordered Globe Telecom to rollback the rates for unlimited text messaging which the company raised last week by 100-150 percent.

“This is good news and we hope the order becomes permanent,” said TXTPower spokesperson Anthony Ian Cruz. “This is a blow against those who abuse consumers.”

Cruz credited “consumer protests as expressed in our online petition, the reactions in internet forums and the complaint we immediately filed” as factors in “the price rollback, albeit only temporary, of the Globe price hike.”

“We hope the NTC makes sure Globe follows the order and rolls back to the previous rates immediately,” said Cruz. “We will prepare for a public hearing to demolish Globe’s arguments and show why keeping unlimited text messaging rates at the lowest possible levels is a legitimate pro-consumer and pro-business move.”

NTC Deputy Commissioner Jorge Sarmiento met with TXTPower convenors Trixie Concepcion, Vencer Crisostomo and Cruz after the consumer group staged a picket at the
NTC gate also this morning. During the picket, TXTPower burned blue ribbons, Globe Telecom’s advertising symbol, to dramatize its protest.

In an order addressed to Globe Telecom’s V. Froilan M. Castelo, NTC Commissioner Abraham Abesamis ordered the firm to “hold in abeyance the implementation of the new unlimited text service and restore the unlimited text promo priced at P10 for one day, P25 for two days and P50 for five days”.

Abesamis cited TXTPower’s complaint as the basis for the order and added that a public hearing will be held to settle the dispute. TXTPower emailed the complaint to the NTC on Feb. 1, the same day Globe implemented the new price hike.

The League of Filipino Students, the Kabataan Partylist and scientists group Agham joined the picket and endorsed the TXTPower complaint.

An online petition which started on Saturday has gathered 836 signatures as of presstime. The petition is in support of the TXTPower complaint and the calls for a rollback.