A senior administration congressman yesterday proposed to the government the use of the newly introduced Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) to drastically help reduce its telephone bills that have reached a staggering P3.7 billion last year.
In a press statement, Rep. Abraham Mitra (LP, Palawan) said the cashstrapped government could solve the problem over mounting telephone bills which soared by at least 60 percent in 2004 compared to the previous year.
The VoIP is a computer program that allows one to make telephone calls using the computer network. Under the system, the users are spared of the restrictive cost of "long distance" or mobile phone charges.
Mitra authored a bill that seeks to develop and protect VoIP as an accepted system in the communications industry.
He explained that the VoIP converts the voice signal from a person’s telephone into digital signal that travels over the Internet then converts it back at the other end in order that the computer system can be used in contacting a regular telephone.
Mitra noted that in its
R1.05-trillion budget proposal, government has admitted that expenditures for communications services is huge, especially in 2004 when the expenses jumped. Local government units registered the highest expenses for the use of telephone long distance service.
The Commission on Audit said bulk of the
R3.73 billion expenses for communications in 2004 went to landline phone use that presumably included domestic and international phone calls.
The amount was
R447 million higher than the R3.28 billion that government paid telecommunications companies in 2003.
National government agencies accounted for
R1.897 billion; government-owned and controlled corporations, R1.116 billion; and local government units, R710 million. (Ben R. Rosario) 
