Asiacell, a leading Iraq telecom company, has been asked by an Iraqi parliamentary panel and the Communication and Media Commission (CMC) to switch from per-minute billing system to per-second system.

The company will start the system from 21 August, 2011, a statement said.

The decision corresponds with the investigative parliamentary committee’s telecom directives issued on July 27, it said.

Under the per-second billing system, each Asiacell subscriber will receive IQD3,500 worth of credit as a gift from the company. All calls will be billed according to the new going tariff of IQD2 per second, thus, a 20-second call made by any Asiacell subscriber will be charged IQD40. 

All offers provided to Asiacell’s prepaid, Youth, Almas and Gold Line subscribers will remain unchanged. However, at certain times and in specific areas call prices will switch to IQD1/second based on each offer’s details, it said.

Despite receiving the CMC’s directive over a year ago, Asiacell continued to offer its subscribers the option of choosing either the per-minute or per-second billing system in order to preserve their best interests and enable them to choose the tariff that suits their specific needs, the company said. 

On account of the numerous Asiacell subscribers who obtained their SIM cards before the company acquired its most recent license in August 2007, which stipulates that calls should be billed per second, Asiacell provided a user-friendly, free-of-charge mechanism that enables subscribers to switch from the per-minute billing system to per-second at their convenience. Asiacell also left these subscribers the option of adopting the per-second system on all their new lines in compliance with the CMC’s directives and the issued license, it said.

Asiacell legally strove to keep both systems optional, but after the insistence of the CMC and the Iraqi investigative parliamentary commission, the company was forced to adopt the per-second billing system exclusively effective from August 21 to avoid incurring significant financial penalties, it said. – TradeArabia News Service