The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) will soon issue new memorandum circulars (MC), in a bid to give itself more teeth in exercising its regulatory powers in a deregulated industry. The provisions that will be contained in the new circular will not be exactly similar to the nine-year-old MC, which to-date has remained unimplemented because the phone companies are opposed to the policies, according to deputy commissioner Douglas Michael Mallillin, as reported by The Business Mirror. Among others, the NTC will issue circulars which will compel the cellular firms to give out load inquiry balance free of charge to their subscribers; provide consumer’s voice call charging options ranging from per-second to per-minute; amend the interconnection agreement between the carriers to reflect the mode of charging imposed on consumers; and impose stricter rules on content providers to avoid abuse. The 2000 billing circular attempts, among others, to extend the validity of credit loads, to register the prepaid SIM (subscriber identification module) cards, and modify the unit of billing for cellular calls from per minute to six-second per pulse billing.