Voice call rates are set to go down by at least P1 by January 2017 after Philippine Long Distance Telephone and Globe Telecom agreed to cut interconnection charges by 40 percent, the government announced on Monday.

Globe and PLDT signed a memorandum of understanding to reduce interconnection rate for voice calls between the two operators to P2.50 per minute from P4 per minute for mobile to mobile and landline to mobile voice calls. Access charges for mobile to landline voice calls cost P3 per minute.

The reduction should take effect not later than January 1, 2017.

This came after President Rodrigo Duterte called telco operators to improve and bring down costs of services or he will open the industry to foreign players.

Edgardo Cabarios, deputy commissioner of the National Telecommunications Commission, said lower rates would depend on various plans offered by the telcos.

“[But] effectively the retail rates should be dropped by P1 across all plans,” Cabarios said.

Existing retail rates for voice calls will go down to P5.50 per minute from the existing prevailing rates of P6.50 per minute. DMS