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Catanduanes Rep. Joseph Santiago on Sunday said he
expects telecommunication service providers to voluntarily launch
new and massive "promotional campaigns" in the next few
days, mainly to help the country's more than 58 million mobile phone
users cope with soaring consumer prices.
"Based on the feedback we
obtained from industry players, they will definitely launch new
promotional services shortly, with the intention of providing us
consumers more value for our money," said Santiago, chairman of
the House committee on information and communications technology.
"We definitely welcome the
additional promotional activities, which should allow consumers to
continue to enjoy highly affordable and reliable text messaging and
other communication services. This, while other public services are
getting costlier," said Santiago, also former chief of the
National Telecommunications Commission (NTC).
The new voluntary promotions
would be the industry's response to President Macapagal-Arroyo's as
well as House Speaker Prospero Nograles' previous call for
burden-sharing at a difficult time when Filipinos are reeling from
unprecedented consumer price increases, according to Santiago.
"Consumers can definitely
use more value for their money now, in the face of the rapid erosion
in their buying power," Santiago said.
The National Statistics Office
reported on Thursday that consumer price increases, as measured by
the inflation rate, surged to 9.6 percent in May – the highest
rate in nine years.
Santiago said he and other
members of Congress preferred the voluntary promotional activities
of telecommunication service providers. "This way, consumers
would benefit directly, materially and instantly," he pointed
out.
"We must stress that even in
a totally liberalized telecommunications market, the NTC can always
try to force service providers to do this and do that. However,
based on my experience at the NTC, service providers can just as
easily go to court and challenge any new NTC order, and we'll all
just end up in a tiresome and drawn out legal dispute,"
Santiago said.
"And while the dispute is
pending in court, the relief that we all want to extend to consumers
would be lost," he added.
In response to prior calls for
lower text-messaging charges, Globe Telecom Inc. senior vice
president Rodolfo Salalima said in a radio interview that the
Philippines already has the cheapest "texting" rates in
Asia, largely owing to the various "promotions" offered by
service providers.
Salalima cited in particular the
"periodic unlimited texting" promotions that have
effectively reduced text-messaging rates in the country "to as
low as 13 to 14 centavos per message."
This rate, Salalima stressed, is
"extremely low" when compared to India's effective rate of
61 centavos per text message, Malaysia's 67 centavos, Indonesia's
P1.18, China's P1.55, and Hong Kong's unusually high P15.91 per
message.
Earlier, House Senior Deputy
Minority Leader and Parañaque City Rep. Roilo Golez issued the
following statement:
"Globe, then followed by
Smart (Communications Inc.) introduced the text messaging to
Filipinos more than 10 years ago, as part of the GSM digital
service. Before, it was all analog, all voice. Filipinos readily
found texting a better, cheaper way of communicating. Texting became
popular nationwide. As a result, we became a world leader in texting.
Because of the wide acceptance, mobile telephone subscription jumped
to more than 40 million. SIM cards and cellphones became cheaper and
service providers, by offering a cheap service to millions, are now
earning a lot. Is this bad? I don't think so. It's like a fast food
chain earning billions by selling cheap value meals to millions of
customers.
"Now, we can send not just
text messages but also photos and videos, plus enjoy special
services like Internet and TV. Cellphone services are more reliable
than other communication services, transport and other public
utilities. More important, it is affordable. Proof: It is used by
all sectors of Philippine society, from the richest to the poorest.
If we reduce the rates, or make it free, the profit incentive in a
free enterprise economy is removed, as intended by Department pf
Transportation and Communications. The service might deteriorate and
the public would gravely suffer. We may end up with a communication
crisis to add to our food and energy crisis. DOTC should instead
just focus its attention on our still- medieval, always late,
frequently unreliable transport sector, instead of trying to fix
something that 'ain't broke'."
-- Tech Times Online
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