Time for Philippines to have a Mobile VAS Clearing House?
First of all, the following does not reflect the opinion of the company or companies I work for. The sole basis of these opinions is my experience and is neither financially nor politically motivated.
Countries such as the United States and Europe have established a "clearing house" for value added services; this is really not new but how about implementing the same scheme here in the Philippines?
This would mean lesser access numbers to confuse users and they will no longer have to memorize a dozen access numbers, in my experience an access number's popularity depends entirely on how well it is advertised especially endorsed by the Telco, after that the survival of the service depends on the number of users that opted to subscribe on the service to receive a regular content such as notifications or content (SMS /MMS). A universal access number (4 or 3 digit) for common services can also be implemented which would benefit content providers (CP) who wish to provide service across all networks, this could be optional depending on the agreement between CPs and the Telco such as exclusivity contracts. User acceptability test can be done independently by the clearing house to avoid undue bias from the Telco, a standardized format and guidelines for identifying services can also be implemented. Additionally the clearing house may pass sanction on CPs who has committed fraudulent acts using their service such as unfair charging and annoyances.
Finally, the clearing house can also ensure an equal opportunity for all content providers to publish their content/service. We say we have the freedom of expression as provided by the constitution, and then such expression is carried by means of communication such as TV, Print, Radio, and Telco. Can't one argue that argue that if Telco has the sole authority to restrict usage of their service as they see fit or due to biases (competing markets) then it would be hampering our constitutional rights to express?
Now I leave these thoughts to the people with authorities for who and how this is going to be done.
Just my two cents worth.
1 comments:
This is long overdue, I blogged about this last year. Although I was proposing the Access Code application should be as easy getting a landline. A model where the CP pays access code usage can also be a nice option. What CP's direly need is telco grade infrastructure and an easier way of acquiring an access code. No more SD crap.
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