Philippines Government to operators: Make texting free

The Manila Standard Today reports that the Philippines Government is mulling the concept of demanding operators provide texting for free. Heh. Cat, Pigeons.

Have a read:

ISLAND—The government wants cell phone companies, which move 1.39 billion messages a day, to offer texting for free.

“We are studying this now,” Transportation Secretary Leandro Mendoza said. “Carriers should only charge for voice calls because in their franchise, they only pay for voice services. Text messaging is not really considered a [basic] service and should be free.”

Mendoza said the department expected to file a petition before the National Telecommunications Commission to remove the charges on text, but acknowledged the move would be controversial and difficult to carry out.