Quote Originally Posted by raikonen
expected naman talaga sya pero sana naman ay may big improvement na sa service bago nagtaas...

but kaya ba tapatan man lang ito ng Smart or TNT... if they can, i'll junk my Globe plan (4 yrs na) and Sun sim w/o batting an eyelash..

at least, TouchMobile is trying...
Konting tiis na lang po....

[SIZE=4]Smart, Piltel to join price war[/SIZE]
PLDT's wireless units would have no choice but to join the price war.

Inquirer News Service

ADMITTING that competition has been altered with the entry of buffet pricing for mobile phone services, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. chairman Manuel Pangilinan said Tuesday that PLDT's wireless units would have no choice but to join the price war.

"There is a market segment developing," Pangilinan said at a media briefing on PLDT's 2004 financial results. "If that is what the market wants, then Smart will participate in that. We would tap into this new voice market of unlimited pricing."

PLDT's two wireless units, Smart Communications Inc. and Pilipino Telephone Corp. (Piltel), ended 2004 with 19.2 million subscribers.

Pangilinan said Smart and Piltel had the highest subscriber take-up in the October-December quarter, when competitor Digitel Mobile Philippines' Sun Cellular brand was already selling its "24/7" plan, which offers unlimited call and text-messaging within its network.

Sun Cellular launched "24/7" -- priced at P250 for a month and P100 for 10 days -- in October. The low-price plan increased its customers to more than 1.5 million as of January from 700,000 in September. Pangilinan said Smart and its main rival, Globe Telecom Inc., "have to address this new market."

"We will decide what options to take," he said. "At some point, sooner into 2005, Smart will tap into this new unlimited voice market. It is a market segment that we have to participate in."

Globe will start this month a 30-day promo strictly for subscribers to its "Touch Mobile" brand. For P300 for 30 days, Touch Mobile users could avail themselves of unlimited voice and text messaging, and for P50, five days of unlimited text messaging.

The need to protect market share will become more pronounced this year, as Pangilinan forecast a slowdown in mobile subscriber take-up for PLDT as well as the whole industry.

Pangilinan said subscriber take-up and revenue in January were ahead compared with a year earlier.

He also said Sun Cellular should be complimented for developing a product that was keeping competitors awake at night. He said he was not among the sleepless ones.

"The paradigm is changing with Sun," he said. "And this provides an exciting future for PLDT."

The PLDT chairman said he was worried that the National Telecommunications Commission might treat Sun Cellular with kid gloves, in contrast to the way Smart and Globe were penalized when their networks were suffering from drop calls.

Pangilinan said the older players -- Smart and Globe -- had invested "tons of money" in their facilities to provide quality service.

He said that if the regulator would not apply rigid standards fairly, then Smart and Piltel would compete under the same terms.

He said he was also worried about how the NTC would decide on issues related to third-generation frequencies, or 3G, and on the Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, which he said would threaten the fixed-line business by allowing cheaper long distance calls. Clarissa S. Batino, with INQ7.net