Category: Text News

Some 1.4 million Filipinos are now involved in the e-load business, or the sale of pre-paid mobile phone credits to subscribers.

Mr. Ramon Isberto, head of the public affairs group of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. and Smart Communications, said the figure confirmed that telecom companies were in business with ordinary Filipinos. “About 1.4 million micro-entrepreneurs are in the e-loading business,” Isberto said during the launching of the Tipid-Sulit Pinas! advocacy campaign of Talk ‘N Text, the low-cost brand of Smart.

Smart chief wireless advisor Orlando Vea said the 1.4 million micro-entrepreneurs in the e-loading business highlighted the importance of livelihood in the Philippines.

There will be a 12-second flag down rate on mobile phone calls in the Philippines beginning 9th August 2009, after the government regulator National Telecommunication Commission or NTC issued a new circular changing the unit of billing for cellular mobile telephone service or CMTS from per-minute charging to six-seconds per-pulse.  It is expected to result in cheaper voice calls.

On 23rd July 2009, th NTC issued Memorandum Circular No. 05-07-2009, which set at six seconds per pulse the maximum unit of billing for the cellular phone calls of both postpaid or prepaid subscribers.  The circular is to take effect by next month, or 15 days after its publication.  It also established a flag down rate equivalent to first two pulses or a period of 12 seconds, which may be charged a minimum rate.

However, no rates have been set yet, as to how much a 12-second voice call will cost. Currently, the cost of voice call from one network to another is P6.50 per minute.

Mediaquest Holdings Inc., the media investment arm of the PLDG Group of Companies, launched on July 14, 2009 the Cignal Digital TV, which broadcasts digital and high definition pay TV channels nationwide through satellite.  Cignal Digital TV is the latest subscription-based direct-to-home satellite television service provider using the NSS-11 satellite of New Skies Satellite, according to Fernandez.

Benjie Fernandez, managing director of Mediaquest, said the company has so far invested P650 milion for Cignal, and will spend another P350 million towards the end of the year.

"We aim to reach a market of 2 million households in the Philippines that are not served by cable TV providers," Fernandez said.  Cignal will compete directly with Dream Satellite TV and GSAT, which also broadcasts through satellite.  "What makes us different is that we have quality channels and affordable cost.  We also offer three high definition channels," he said.

A new consumer advocacy group, Txtmate, claimed that the recent policies issued by the National Telecommunication Commission would not significantly reduce the cost of telecommunication in the country, as this does not tackle the issue of interconnection charges.  Txtmate, which had its origin at the University of the Philippines, said it has now over 2,000 fans in Facebook.

Mr. Marcelino Veloso III, spokesperson of txtmate, said the most important issue, that which could single-handedly revolutionize the mobile industry today, remains ignored, swept under the rug of easy-to-grant demands.  “We refer to interconnection fees, also known as access charges, and the NTC draft proposals to gradually lower the same on both calls and text,” Veloso said noting that the high interconnection rates has resulted in the Philippines having the most expensive mobile call rates in all of Asia.

Smart Communications Inc. has launched a postpaid plan for its SmartBro wireless broadband service that provides unlimited access to Internet with a download speed of up to 2 megabits per second for only P1,500 a month.  The new speed of SmartBro was a significant improvement from the previous 384 kilobits per second, which became possible after Smart expanded and upgraded its network coverage using High-speed Packet Access (HSPA).

The new Smart Bro Plan 1500 comes with Smart Bro’s Plug-It, a USB stick-type modem.  It also comes with unlimited Wi-Fi access at all Airborne Access hotspots all over the country. Airborne Access is the country’s largest Wi-Fi hotspot operator, and is a subsidiary of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., Smart's parent company.

“This new plan increases the broadband options available to our subscribers and gives them the freedom and flexibility to access and benefit from the Internet as long as they want, from wherever they are in the country,” said Ava Española, product manager of Smart Bro.

Finally, the National Telecommunication Commission or NTC has issued a memorandum circular that lets prepaid cellular phone subscribers enjoy their load longer.  In fact, a prepaid load of more than P300 is now good for four months.

Under Memorandum Circular No. 03-07-2009, mobile phone operators are required to extend the validity period of prepaid load of subscribers and allow subscribers to accumulate prepaid credits.  A P10 load of prepaid credit is now good for three days while a load amounting to more than P10 to P50 is valid for 15 days.  A load of over P50 to P100 is good for 30 days or a month.

A load of more than P100 to P150 should be good for 45 days; over P150 to P250 for 60 days or two months; over P250 to P30 for 75 days; and over P300 for 120 days or four months.

Before this, a P10 load was good only for a day and P300 for two months.

It is election time and some politicians are now busy knocking on the door of telecom companies for attention.  Mobile phone operators such as Smart and Globe Telecom are the most profitable companies today, no question asked, and politicians look at them as milking cow this election campaign season… Which turned out to be beneficial to subscribers, ironically.

How, you may ask.  Well thanks to politicians, there is now an effort to make telecom companies more accountable for missing load, which were paid for by subscribers with hard-earned money that a decade ago was spent for food and education.  Now, people waste their money on value added services, such as downloading mobile games or joining online contests for a prize that are actually forms of gambling.

Finally, a consumer group, had the galls to file a class suit before the National Telecommunication Commission or NTC, against the country's three major mobile phone operators for allegedly robbing subscribers of millions of pesos in the form of vanishing electronic load.

Has anybody heard about this promo of Red Mobile, a unit of Smart Communications, which offers video and call rates of as low as 50 centavos per minute.  Come to think of it, this rate is even lower than the P1 regular cost of text messages.  

Well, in its publicity campaign, Red Mobile, which is previously available only on the third-generation or 3G network, now offers its service on second-generation or 2G, which means that it will use the nationwide network of Smart Communications for voice and text services. 

Mr. Danilo Mojica, head of Smart's wireless consumer division, said that by expanding the service of Red Mobile to include 2G network using the cell sites of Smart, more people can take advantage of Red Mobile's offering.  Mr. Mojica said only 10 million handsets, representing 15 to 20 percent of the total mobile phones in the Philippines, are 3G capable, while the rest are 2G capable.

Has anybody heard about GSAT or global satellite, a direct-to-home satellite TV targetting households beyond the reach of cable TV service?  Anyway, there are rumors that three taipans have invested at least PhP250 million to launch GSAT as the biggest and widest satellite TV in Asia.

These taipans include David Lim, president and chief executive of the Solid Group; William Tieng, chairman and chief executive of Solar Entertainment Corp.; and Philip Chien, president of cable TV provider Global Destiny.  Together, they formed First United Broadcasting Corp. to operate GSAT.

Although GSAT had already been promoted for several months in the past, First United has just recently obtained a franchise from the National Telecommunication Commission or NTC.  With the launching of GSAT, it will compete with the likes of Cignal, the direct-to-home satellite TV of MediaScape, a subsidiary of PLDT and Dream Satellite TV of businessman Tony Boy Cojuangco.

Nokia launched its latest flagship model, the N97, at the Peninsula Manila Hotel in Makati City on June 26, 2009.  The smartphone has a 32- gigabyte internal memory, that is expandable to 48 gigabytes. N97 would be sold at P35,000 in the Philippines.

William Hamilton-Whyte, general manager of Nokia Philippines said, he has good expectations for N97, which everyone seemingly wants to have. He said N97 will help drive growth of cellphone sales in the country, bucking the downtrend in the global market.
 
"The global phone market was down 10 percent this year.  In the Philippines, I have not seen any slowdown," Mr. Whyte said, although he did not cite any specific growth figure.  Nokia, he said, accounts for more than 50 percent of total mobile phone sales in the Philippines, which he described as a dynamic market.