And the Telecom War is on...

[cyberdoc95]

Telecom firms in bitter price war
By Mary Ann Ll. Reyes
The Philippine Star 03/01/2005

Telecommunications companies both in the mobile phone and landline businesses are now officially engaged in a costly and bitter price war in a bid to either win over new subscribers or keep existing ones, with the cellular players Smart Communications, Globe Telecom, and Gokongwei-owned Sun Cellular, and landline operators Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., and Lopez company Bayan Telecommunications engaged in it.

And because engaging in a price war does not come cheap for any consumer product, whoever has the financial muscle may end up winning. With market forces at play, government may end up letting free competition decide instead of ruling on the question of what constitutes predatory pricing and anti-competitive behavior, industry observers note.

Apparently in answer to Sun Cellular’s 24-7 call and text unlimited for P250 a month promo, Globe Telecom launched for its 1.7 million Touch Mobile subscribers, a 30-day unlimited voice calls and text messaging promotion for only P300 and unlimited text messaging for five days for only P50. Globe’s offer is on top of existing plans.

Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) president Napoleon Nazareno, who also heads Smart Communications and Pilipino Telephone Inc. (Piltel), told The STAR that with Touch Mobile joining, "that changes the competitive dynamics."

"We are carefully studying all our options but rest assured that we will respond in due course and in our usual innovative manner," Nazareno disclosed.

A complaint for predatory and anti-competitive pricing against Digital Mobile Philippines Inc., the Gokongwei group’s mobile phone division which offers Sun Cellular, has been filed by Globe’s Innove Communications and by Piltel with the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC).

According to NTC officials, the commission is now gathering data to countercheck Innove and Piltel’s claim that Sun Cellular has been violating NTC service standard requirements with its poor quality of service.

For instance, Innove and Piltel cite in their respective complaints Digitel’s 38 percent connection rate (only 38 successful calls for every 100 connection attempts on the first try) violates the NTC requirement of a successful call rate of at least 93 percent on the first attempt or a Grade of Service (GOS) of seven percent.

Based on its own tests, Piltel said it discovered that Sun Cellular automatically disconnects successful calls after 15 minutes.

For his part, Catanduanes Rep. Joseph Santiago, former NTC chief, expects that Smart and Piltel would eventually be forced to respond one way or the other to the promotional rates offered by its rivals.

"We suspect Smart and Piltel are just trying to get a sense of the market at the moment, because main rival Globe itself has not launched any promotional offer that would involve the bulk of its 12.5 million subscribers, except for Touch Mobile’s 1.7 million," Santiago said. Smart with its 15 million wireless subscribers, and its affiliate, Piltel with its four million subscribers, have so far resisted joining the price war.

He said the aggressive promotional pricing now unfolding in the telecommunications industry is conclusive proof that free and open market competition is the best ally of consumers.

Santiago made the statement as he welcomed the renewal of a price war among telecommunications players.

He, however, did not comment on allegations that Digitel’s promotional offer constituted predatory pricing. "That is up to the NTC and the courts later on, if necessary, to hear and decide. But one thing is certain. The price war is good to the extent that it is benefiting consumers. What is good for consumers is good enough for us," Santiago pointed out.

The landline business is also engaged in its price war. PLDT has offered a P10 fixed rate nationwide for every national direct distance dialing call to another PLDT fixed line or mobile telephone of Smart and Piltel and other participating provincial telephone companies over a limited period. It has likewise dropped its PLDT Vibe dial-up Internet pricing to P99 for 99 hours of Internet usage, or one peso per hour.

Not to be outdone, Lopez-owned Bayan Telecommunications (Bayantel)’s Sky Internet responded with an unlimited dial-up Internet plan at a monthly flat rate of P499 initially available to Metro Manila subscribers. Bayantel has about 15,000 Internet subscribers and aims to attract thousands of additional subscribers with the new plan.

Unlimited dial-up plans cost between P600 and P900 a month, although some players are offering a flat rate of P500 a month. The Sky Internet’s plan was offered following a survey conducted by Bayantel showing that an average user consumes P100 for prepaid card a week.

[silver_corolla]

as expected! hehe....

[SIZE=4]Sun Cellular to hike monthly fee on call, text[/SIZE]
Even if Sun Cellular raises the rate for its unlimited services, it is still considered a reduction since it originally charges calls at P8 per minute.

Business World

Gokongwei-led Digital Mobile Philipines, Inc. is planning to raise soon the monthly fee for the Sun Cellular unlimited call and text plan to P350 as it offers a variety of service and payment schemes to subscribers.

Sun Cellular has informed the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) about its plan to raise the rate for the 24/7 plan from the existing P250 fee.

"Sun informed the Commission through a letter late last year that it wants to increase the monthly fees of 24/7. All rate reduction will still require NTC approval although it will not be subjected to quasi-judicial proceedings," said Edgar Cabarios, NTC director for Common Carriers Authorization Department.

Mr. Cabarios said even if Sun Cellular raises the rate for its unlimited services, it is still considered a reduction since it originally charges calls at P8 per minute.

Digital Mobile senior vice-president William Pamintuan said the increase in monthly rate is part of Sun Cellular's plan to offer a variety of payment schemes to avail of its unlimited services. A subscriber will also have more choices in the validity period for the unlimited service he chooses, he added.

[RedHorse]

Good!

tataas lalo DGTL bukas!

[odell]

kelan daw magtaas?

[falken]

P 350? Mura pa rin yan for 24/7.

[RedHorse]

Phone giant acknowledges Sun making dent in market


Wednesday, 03 02, 2005

Giant Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) tipped its hat off yesterday to novice Sun Cellular for coming up with its innovative 24/7 plan, which PLDT said virtually created a new niche market in the local mobile phone industry.

According to PLDT chairman Manuel Pangilinan, Smart Communications Inc. and its chief rival Globe Telecom Inc. have to address and participate in this new market Sun's 24/7 plan has created.

“Sun has got to be complimented for its service. The plan created a niche market, which I think Globe and Smart have to address and participate in,” he said. “At some point, we got to participate.”

Pangilinan did not elaborate what kind of pricing scheme they would come up with to match up with Sun's 24/7 plan.

He, however, stressed that Sun's scheme did not put a dent to Smart's ability to grow its subscriber base.

“We added 6.3 million subscribers last year, 1.8 million for the fourth quarter alone, which is a record high. It (fourth quarter of 2004) was the time Sun offered its 24/7 plan. The impact was not significant,” said Pangilinan. “It did affect us a bit, but not to a point where it affected our net adds.”

The PLDT group head honcho explained that while Sun was aggressive in its subscriber acquisition efforts anchored on its 24/7 plan, the company still just focused on Metro Manila alone. In contrast, Pangilinan said that Smart's subscriber acquisition drive was geared towards the whole country.

The National Telecommunications Commission has earlier required Gokongwei-owned Digitel Mobile, which carries the brand name Sun Cellular, to answer the charges raised by Pilipino Telephone Corp., (Piltel) that Digitel Mobile is not complying with the service performance standards rule of the NTC by offering its 24/7 plan.

Piltel will soon be a wholly owned subsidiary of Smart

[GlennSter]

ok lang magtaas sila...basta ba mag improve ang signal.

and yes, expected siya..DUH!.kaya ok lang.

[odell]

sana naman pag 350 na wala ng busy.. pati send na lahat ng messages

[CaRGirL]

im fine with 350, as long as mas ok na ang signal. lately madalas ako walang signal on some areas e. as usual, due to system upgrade daw. pero improvement on calls ha, mejo madali na tumawag unlike before...

[Elroi]

as expected! hehe....

[SIZE=4]Sun Cellular to hike monthly fee on call, text[/SIZE]
Even if Sun Cellular raises the rate for its unlimited services, it is still considered a reduction since it originally charges calls at P8 per minute.

Gokongwei-led Digital Mobile Philipines, Inc. is planning to raise soon the monthly fee for the Sun Cellular unlimited call and text plan to P350 as it offers a variety of service and payment schemes to subscribers.

Sun Cellular has informed the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) about its plan to raise the rate for the 24/7 plan from the existing P250 fee.

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...

[cyberdoc95]

[SIZE=3]Yakang-yaka naman yata yang P100 additional. Kapalit ng isang tall Starbucks Latte lang yan!He he he!!! [/SIZE]

[mazdamazda]

as expected! hehe....

[SIZE=4]Sun Cellular to hike monthly fee on call, text[/SIZE]
Even if Sun Cellular raises the rate for its unlimited services, it is still considered a reduction since it originally charges calls at P8 per minute.

Business World

Gokongwei-led Digital Mobile Philipines, Inc. is planning to raise soon the monthly fee for the Sun Cellular unlimited call and text plan to P350 as it offers a variety of service and payment schemes to subscribers.

Sun Cellular has informed the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) about its plan to raise the rate for the 24/7 plan from the existing P250 fee.

"Sun informed the Commission through a letter late last year that it wants to increase the monthly fees of 24/7. All rate reduction will still require NTC approval although it will not be subjected to quasi-judicial proceedings," said Edgar Cabarios, NTC director for Common Carriers Authorization Department.

Mr. Cabarios said even if Sun Cellular raises the rate for its unlimited services, it is still considered a reduction since it originally charges calls at P8 per minute.

Digital Mobile senior vice-president William Pamintuan said the increase in monthly rate is part of Sun Cellular's plan to offer a variety of payment schemes to avail of its unlimited services. A subscriber will also have more choices in the validity period for the unlimited service he chooses, he added.

you don't know even half of the story...

read the highlighted portion... though i won't spill the beans... hehehe...

just sit back and relax peeps... TM's entry into the 24/7 market is VERY interesting...

[BlueBimmer]

upgrade na sana.....

[silver_corolla]

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

[ssaloon]

pano naman mga smart gold subs? i figure that this 24/7 schemes are more for the TnT, TM subs eh.

[boybi]

hindi na rin nakatiis ang Smart/PLDT. they must be surely affected by SUN's CTU for them to make this decision. sakit sa bulsa nyan

[BlueBimmer]

come one come all! unlimited nalang lahat para masaya!!!

[markus]

Well, just like I said in an earlier post, this will be a three way gridlock in the end where these three telco companies will lock the prices, and equally share the market. Sun is increasing thier rates...Globe and Smart are joing the price war... it will eventually level off at a rate where all three are happy...and we subscribers are back to square one, facing this time a tri-poly. :-)

[BlueBimmer]

ok na yan kesa naman duopoly! aarrgghhh

[Juan Tamad]

Yan ang hirap sa SMART and GLOBE.... Dakdak ng dakdak sila... Sasali din sila sa unlimited call and text.

The consumer is the ultimate beneficiary ng price war.