Recently, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) has signed a memorandum circular approving the final guidelines for deregulating commercial voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services in the Philippines.

Under the said guidelines, VoIP is a value-added service and is not a regular voice service. As such, it is not necessary for VoIP service providers to secure a franchise from government, and they are merely required to register with the NTC.

The guidelines will become effective 15 days after it is published in a generally-circulated newspaper.

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