Democratizing SMS in the Philippines
Mike Banos
April 14, 2006
The National Telecommunications Commission?s recent initiative asking cellphone service providers to suspend the transmission of unsolicited text messages to subscribers I believe is a text, err?.step in the right direction towards rationalizing the further development of the industry. Globe, Smart, Sun Cellular and other cellphone service firms prompt response is equally refreshing to all of us users who?ve ever been driven bananas by text ?spams? pushing ring tones, raffles and other downloads, all aimed at ?helping? you consume your ?load? as soon as possible.
I say refreshing because those of us familiar with other consumer issues involving cellphone service providers know how reluctant and unenthusiastic they can be regarding these. A case in point is the ?pulse? or size of the bits of data a cellphone service provider charges its subscribers. Other countries bill calls on the basis of six-second pulses but Filipino cellular mobile telephone service providers bill by the minute, so fractions of a minute or say five seconds over the last pulse are billed the same as one minute, which makes your average call from a cellphone in the Philipppines a comparatively expensive proposition.
I don?t believe this issue has been settled yet to the satisfaction of subscribers, especially those who buy their ?e-loads? on a daily basis since the minimum P30 load is all they can afford. When one considers it is this section of the nation?s households (that is, in the C-D-E income groups) which really made the cellphone industry boom with the convergence of the P1 text message and P30 electronic load, the telecom firms apathy and foot-dragging is unconscionable, given how poor cellphone users would sooner give up lunch or taking the bus rather than allow their e-loads to be depleted.
Thus it is refreshing indeed to note that a new wind seems to be blowing in the upper echelons of the management of CMTS providers. Consider the ?text-all-you-can? promos which can be had for as little as P15 a day. Assuming a rate of just an SMS a minute, this would give text junkies a theoretical total of 1,440 text messages, never mind if only subscribers from your same CMTS provider can avail of the service. Or, if you?re like many Pinoys who keep two SIM cards for one cellphone, this would still entitle you to 1,440 text messages worth P1,440 which you can dash off non-stop for 24 hours for only P30!
It is initiatives like this which, if sustained over the long term or further developed into a variety of services, could truly ?democratize? the country?s CMTS network and empower its citizenry to use their phones for personal professional and spiritual development, instead of the forwarded jokes, green jokes, inspirational messages and other unnecessary ?spam? messages which now make up the bulk of SMS traffic in the country.
Now, if only Globe, Smart and Sun Cellular (for a start, the rest can follow later) offer the one-peso SMS across all three platforms, this would further expand the market to and beyond those subscribers who now curtail their SMS messaging to the bare minimum and essential (as it should be!). Another upgrade would be expanding the P1 SMS beyond its present 145-character borders, so poorer subscribers won?t be penalized for sending text messages longer than 145-characters.
3G technology may just be around the corner but it may be well for our CMTS service providers to review just how big a share of the e-load market is contributed by the C-D-E income bracket subscribers who can ill-afford even the P15 unlimited text promo on a daily basis. For pulling up our economy when it was sliding back into the tar pit and rocketing the CMTS industry into the stratosphere, it is incumbent upon them to give something back to these poor subscribers, who are also responsible for giving workers and executives in the CMTS industry the luxurious perks they now enjoy.
INDNJC -
I say refreshing because those of us familiar with other consumer issues involving cellphone service providers know how reluctant and unenthusiastic they can be regarding these. A case in point is the ?pulse? or size of the bits of data a cellphone service provider charges its subscribers. Other countries bill calls on the basis of six-second pulses but Filipino cellular mobile telephone service providers bill by the minute, so fractions of a minute or say five seconds over the last pulse are billed the same as one minute, which makes your average call from a cellphone in the Philipppines a comparatively expensive proposition.
I don?t believe this issue has been settled yet to the satisfaction of subscribers, especially those who buy their ?e-loads? on a daily basis since the minimum P30 load is all they can afford. When one considers it is this section of the nation?s households (that is, in the C-D-E income groups) which really made the cellphone industry boom with the convergence of the P1 text message and P30 electronic load, the telecom firms apathy and foot-dragging is unconscionable, given how poor cellphone users would sooner give up lunch or taking the bus rather than allow their e-loads to be depleted.
Thus it is refreshing indeed to note that a new wind seems to be blowing in the upper echelons of the management of CMTS providers. Consider the ?text-all-you-can? promos which can be had for as little as P15 a day. Assuming a rate of just an SMS a minute, this would give text junkies a theoretical total of 1,440 text messages, never mind if only subscribers from your same CMTS provider can avail of the service. Or, if you?re like many Pinoys who keep two SIM cards for one cellphone, this would still entitle you to 1,440 text messages worth P1,440 which you can dash off non-stop for 24 hours for only P30!
It is initiatives like this which, if sustained over the long term or further developed into a variety of services, could truly ?democratize? the country?s CMTS network and empower its citizenry to use their phones for personal professional and spiritual development, instead of the forwarded jokes, green jokes, inspirational messages and other unnecessary ?spam? messages which now make up the bulk of SMS traffic in the country.
Now, if only Globe, Smart and Sun Cellular (for a start, the rest can follow later) offer the one-peso SMS across all three platforms, this would further expand the market to and beyond those subscribers who now curtail their SMS messaging to the bare minimum and essential (as it should be!). Another upgrade would be expanding the P1 SMS beyond its present 145-character borders, so poorer subscribers won?t be penalized for sending text messages longer than 145-characters.
3G technology may just be around the corner but it may be well for our CMTS service providers to review just how big a share of the e-load market is contributed by the C-D-E income bracket subscribers who can ill-afford even the P15 unlimited text promo on a daily basis. For pulling up our economy when it was sliding back into the tar pit and rocketing the CMTS industry into the stratosphere, it is incumbent upon them to give something back to these poor subscribers, who are also responsible for giving workers and executives in the CMTS industry the luxurious perks they now enjoy.
INDNJC -
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