Low cell phone bills: A possible dream?

[mazdamazda]

Low cell phone bills: A possible dream?
By Wilson Lee Flores
The Philippine STAR 10/18/2004
"By competition the total amount of supply is increased, and by increase of the supply a competition in the sales ensues, and this enable the consumer to buy at lower rates.

Of all human powers operating on the affairs of mankind, none is greater than that of competition." - legendary US Senator Henry Clay (1777-1852)

Are the days of free texts and unlimited cell phone calls coming soon for Filipino consumers? So that hopeless text addicts can spend more on books, movies, music, sports and other alternative entertainment.

There’s no more need to fear new taxes for SMS text messages proposed by the World Bank, that it will increase the text costs for us consumers, because the market forces of fierce competition may hopefully bring down text costs starting with Sun Cellular’s incredible 24/7 strategy soon offering unlimited texts and calls. Our politicians and the government have failed to put some sense into the wild, wild west-like industry of telecommunications, with telecom firms raking in so many mind-boggling billions of pesos in net profits at the expense of other economic sectors, but market forces may be coming in to rationalize the whole industry and benefit all of us consumers.

The Philippine telecom industry is an oligopoly now being threatened with havoc by the upstart Sun Cellular not wanting to be a far No. 3 to Smart and Globe. An oligopoly is a market sector in which there are few sellers. In the Philippines where the national government is weak, where many politicians have for decades been shamelessly opportunistic and blinded by narrow self-interests, many oligopolies, monopolies and mismanaged state-controlled firms have been allowed to become inefficient deadweights on the national economy and to disadvantage us the consuming public.

Whatever his public claims may be about his retirement, rags-to-riches taipan John Gokongwei Jr. seems to be the clever mastermind behind upstart Sun Cellular mounting a possible scorched-earth war strategy versus traditional giants Globe Telecom (controlled by the Hispanic Zobel-Ayala clan and regional behemoth Singapore Telecom led by Premier Lee Hsien Loong’s younger brother Lee Hsien Yang) and Smart/PLDT (led by Wharton-trained Manny Pangilinan and controlled by Hong Kong-based First Pacific Group). Upping the ante in the bitter telecom war that once mainly pitted Smart/PLDT versus Globe/Ayala, industry late-comer Sun Cellular has nothing to lose but its small market share when it recently announced bold plans to offer Sun Cellular subscribers unlimited texts and calls 24 hours daily seven days a week for only a minimal monthly charge.

We hope that this brash strategy of upstart Sun Cellular will force Smart and Globe to follow suit: offer us consumers better deals, more perks, improved services, more freebies and ultimately lower costs. With lower costs on text messages, it is our sincere hope that the many billions of pesos in new savings for consumers will benefit other industries - more disposable incomes for education, entertainment and sports.

We hope that consumers who will spend less on text messages will buy more books, magazines, newspapers, watch more movies, buy more music, indulge in more sports, eat better food and pursue a better quality of life.
Politicians Failed To Protect Us In Text Boom
Our politicians seemed to have abdicated on their public duty to safeguard the public welfare on the issue of excessive telecom firms’ profits due to lack of political will, vision and possibly even lack of social conscience. The state’s failure is not due to its laissez faire attitude of allowing free market forces free reign to the Philippine market, but simply due to impotence and myopia. The state and political elite of the Philippines have failed to guide the business sector on where to wisely invest the nation’s scarce capital for true national progress.

Will Sun Cellular throwing down the gauntlet with its 24/7 strategy lead to reduced but still good profits for telecom firms, forcing these smart business leaders the Zobel-Ayalas, Manny Pangilinan/First Pacific and even Gokongwei himself to search for other new business investments that will truly create more jobs, generate more social good, improve quality of life and push sustained Philippine economic progress?

If there are no reforms or no major shake-up in the telecom sector, the incredible bumper crop of multi-billion pesos profits every year will most likely be reinvested in more cell sites and bigger marketing campaigns which create much less jobs than basic manufacturing industries, tourism establishments or agri-business ventures - industries the Philippines badly needs today to get out of economic crisis and soar upwards.

The US is a genuine democracy not just politically, but economically. They have strong anti-trust laws that allow wise and courageous political leaders to forcibly break up monopolies or oligopolies, which harm the whole economy and society. Their system favors free competition, not monopolies or oligopolies. Every citizen of our Philippine democracy should uphold a level playing field for all industries; promote robust free enterprise; and healthy competition to guarantee a win-win situation for all.

Will the upstart Sun Cellular’s campaign do to the telecom oligopoly what Gokongwei’s Cebu Pacific Air did to Lucio Tan’s Philippine Airlines and what GMA 7 did to ABS-CBN 2? Will it force the once invincible traditional industry leaders to humbly lower their prices, improve quality, reinvest, increase the pay of their employees and upgrade their services to benefit all of us the consumers?

[explorer]

we should have had low phone bills as early as 5 years ago if only the congress and NTC were working for the filipino people and not for smart and globe. philippines has the most expensive airtime rate that even the giants in the US and EU wanted to get a share of the local market. but because telecom industry is regulated, the comsumers are just taking what this two greedy telocoms are offering. in thailand, one minute call would cost only THB3.0 (PHP4.4). here only sun cellular is offering that.

[pissword]

sana hehe nice find sir mazda, todo promote ah...

btw, i was there sa sun shop galleria last sunday, ang init hehehe dami tao

[mantoy]

dapat talaga dumami players sa telecom industry. para consumers ang panalo.

[stelvio]

its true calls in other countries are very cheap, but they are also charged the same rate for all incoming calls.

[superdude]

Dream on.....those cell companies (globe and smart) just care for thier profit. they dont really improve their services to their consumers. they just think of ways how to earn more profit and hence not improving their basic service to their consumers. they keep on selling sim cards but their network capabilities doesnt improve. if you can notice, on holidays you will receive a text message from a friend after an hour your friend send it to you and when you try to make a call you will always hear circuit busy.wadapak is that.wel thats how business works in the Phillippines.

[chase]

how does sun manage to earn money wth their promo? anybody wanna shed light on this? bec if they're not making money, this probably won't last.

[pissword]

sir chase, have you heard that smart is projecting a 5 billion peso profit in its cellular division i think... kung walang bayad ang text nila, i think d pa rin naman sila lugi..

just like sa sun, i think d naman sila malulugi, minimal cost lang naman ang kelangan sa text, ang pag set up ng network ang mahal...

but yeah i agree masyadong mababa ang 250/month to sustain the 24/7 ctu hehe i dunno though... d nga ba lugi sir mazda and pk?

[karlbo]

lufet ng ginawa ng sun eh...

galing galing.. talagang medyo napapaisip ang mga subscribers to shift to sun.. madami akong kakilala na kumuha pa sila ng extra phone para sa sun cell sim nila... and sobrang nagugulat kami kasi, telebabad talaga sila kahit magkakasama na kami sa lakad hehehe...


baliktad tumbong ng ibang telcos eh... hmm....

matapatan kaya ng iba?!....

[theveed]

Ako i find our system of cellphone using a NDD line is stupid, dito ko lang nakita yan... Sa ibang bansa you can use a payphone to call a cell... labo ng systema dito, parang banking, 9-3PM hours geez.

Sa HK they give out thousands of free minutes, compared to our "hundreds", kahit madami tatawag sayo di mo padin maubos...

They also offer phone rebates, so if the phone costs $1200, $100/mo will be CREDITED back to your account as long as you stay with the plan, after 1 year zero cost ang phone mo, dito ang "free phone" parang hulugan system lang eh...

M2/PK: May isang Sun line kami, pano ulit ishift sa 24/7 plan? I thought about getting a line sa Sun, but super daming deadspots lagi for now, everytime I try to call my wife from C5 (near dampa sa libis) laging cannot connect... as in walang sablay hehe, pag nasa area ako na yun, I cant call to landline.

[mazdamazda]

theveed...

plus 250 yan to your monthly bill. just have it enrolled at a business center.

mahirap mag connect sa libis? hmmm... interesting...

[explorer]

Originally posted by stelvio
its true calls in other countries are very cheap, but they are also charged the same rate for all incoming calls.

people in the US don't mind the incoming call charges because the rate is very cheap. besides, you have the option to accept or reject the call if you think the call is not that important. imagine....a call from the US to Phils. would cost as low as Php 3.50 (USD 0.062) per minute and call within the US would cost you almost nothing.

[pissword]

huwaw... no wonder pwedeng gawin ng sun ang ganyan.. sa hK and US pala ang mura d pa sila lugi

[stelvio]

Originally posted by explorer
people in the US don't mind the incoming call charges because the rate is very cheap. besides, you have the option to accept or reject the call if you think the call is not that important. imagine....a call from the US to Phils. would cost as low as Php 3.50 (USD 0.062) per minute and call within the US would cost you almost nothing.

I don't know where you got those rates, and I'm not very familiar with GSM Providers in the states either, but here's two of AT&T Wireless' (GSM 1900) lowest plans:

Plan $19.99 (P1139.00) Free minutes 45 add'l min $0.45(P25.65)

Plan $29.99 (P1709.43) Free minutes 245 add'l min $0.45
(P25.65)

Texting probably should be unlimited.

In Canada, FIDO 1900 which is the only GSM provider in that country, the cheapest load costs ca$20 (CA$1=P41) calls costs $.40 a minute (arnd 16/min) but evenings and weekdays costs only 5cents a minute. (arnd P2/min)
However if you buy the $30 load, the rate drops to a flat $.15/min (arnd P6.15/min) texting costs $.15 (P6) per text for both available loads, no charge for incoming texts but no free texts like we have here.

Both countries will charge you the same rate regardless of whether the call is outgoing or incoming.

interestingly in canada, if you live in vancouver, your cellular phone will get the same area code as landlines in vancouver (which is 604) so if i'm within the greater vancouver area, i can call you by just dropping a 25cent (uniform rate for all local payphone calls) coin on a payphone and dialing your 7digit number.

[notEworthy27]

would it still all boil down to: more users:better rates?

[Karding]

Originally posted by explorer
besides, you have the option to accept or reject the call if you think the call is not that important.imagine....a call from the US to Phils. would cost as low as Php 3.50 (USD 0.062) per minute and call within the US would cost you almost nothing.

Kahit sa pinas may option to reject the call di ba? So, whats so special about that? Nothing.

Are we still talking about Cellular calls? Because how can you call to the Phils using the cellular issued by the US company? Cingular, T-Mobile, Verizon, AT&T Wireless, doesnt allow you to call overseas using their cellular service.

stelvio, I dont know where or how did explorer got his number either, Im confused.

Dito kse sa US, monthly packaged deal ang minutes. An example of Cingular GSM US Rate Plan:

Nation 250 anytime minutes is $29.99 w/ night&Weekends of 1000mins in addition to 250 anytime. Add'l minutes is 0.45 cents. Lumalabas na 0.11cents per minute kapag nagamit mo lahat ng 250 anytime mins mo. Mas mag mumura kung gagamitin mo din lahat ng 1000mins mo during the weekend.

250+1000=1250/$29.99 = 0.023cents/minute na lang

Tapos, ang text messaging is additional. 100 text messages in one month costs $2.99. 0.029cents per text message lumalabas.

International Roaming is $1.50/minute. Speaking of which, nagpadala ako sa sister ko ng Cingular SIM CARD and I asked her to use it for text messaging papunta dito sa US. Ginamit pa din ang minutes calling local phone numbers jan sa Pinas. She used 17 minutes, and it cost me an additional $40.00 for those minutes used. :swear: Akala nya Pinas local calls ang ginagawa nya. Sabi ko, kahit nanjan ka sa Pinas at gamit mo ang US SIM CARD ko, international roaming ang charge sakin.

Anyway, incoming or outgoing sa US, both users get charged for text and voice usage. Sa Japan, outgoing lang ang charges. Eto ang mas okay!

[pissword]

sa pinas outgoing lang din naman ang charge... mukhang lumalabas sa US masmahal.. pero yung sinasabi niyo sir carding as long as weekend tatawag mas mura siya, may 1000 minutes free call eh hehe but walang freetext.

[stelvio]

Originally posted by notEworthy27
would it still all boil down to: more users:better rates?

My fearless prediction: Sun Cellular is only using the 24/7 promo to lure Globe and Smart Customers to their fold. Once they reach a certain number of subscribers, they will stop the promo. It wasn't too long ago when globe had unlimited texts too remember? but this resulted in network congestion because some people are like sending 10,000 texts a day. Globe used to have a plan 240 too, but now the lowest is the free text only plan 500. SUN's consumable plan 250 and 500 is still darn good value (w/or w/o 24/7) for the money considering its service and signal level has reached a very satisfactory level (at least from my experience in MM). So I'd say enjoy the country's only 24/7 plan ever while it lasts.

[yebo]

speaking of free text, may stupid question ako. so forgive my stupidity ha.

dami ko na free text credits pero hindi ko naman nagagamit. say i have 1200 free text, then naubusan na load sim ko. i try to text pero di naman pwede, check operator services pa din. so my stupid question is "how does one use the free text credits."

[GlennSter]

yebo: you mean, ubos na ang credit mo, pero may free texts pa?so meaning, tawag ka nang tawag, pero biria mag text? dimo na yata magagamit yun...someone please correct me if im wrong.

OT QUESTIONs (IMPORTANT LANG TALAGA): my parents are going to canada next week, in ontario and in nova scotia. i told them to bring their phones with SMART PREPAID simcard.

1) pano i activate ang roaming?tatawag sa smart? (toll free naman yun diba?)

2) magkano ang carge sa texts? sa calls? kanino ma cha charge?

3) pwede bang iwan nila ang cellphone doon sa canada sa tita ko, then bigyan ko nalang ng load ung tita ko pag ubos na?

TIA.