SMS messages for 5 centavos possible, says lawmaker

Mobile phone text messages for as low as five centavos may soon be possible due to increased competition among major service providers, Catanduanes Rep. Joseph Santiago said Wednesday.
"Right now, the effective text messaging rate is already 16 to 18centavos, based on the current promotional campaigns of service providers. Once the full force of unfettered competition is brought to bear on the market, we reckon that text messaging rates would fall some more, possibly to as low as five to 10 centavos," Santiago said in a press statement.
Under a P20-promotional plan, Smart Communications Inc. now allows subscribers to send 110 Smart-to-Smart text messages, plus 10messages to any non-Smart network, implying a rate of 16 centavos.
Meanwhile, under a P30-promotional combo plan, Digitel Mobile Philippines Inc. enables subscribers to send 120 Sun-to-Sun text messages, plus 40 messages to any non-Sun network, indicating a rate of 18centavos. This is on top of 40 minutes of free Sun-to-Sun voice calls.
Santiago, former chief of the National Telecommunications Commission, said existing service providers Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT), Globe Telecom Inc. and Digitel are now "aggressively raiding" each other's subscribers, while trying to sign up Filipinos who still do not use mobile telephones.
"The mounting pressure to draw in the 'last mile' of non-users could potentially drive down to as low as P500 the cost of carrier-subsidized handsets with SIM cards," Santiago said.
PLDT, which provides mobile telephone services through subsidiaries Smart and Pilipino Telephone Corp., reported 35.2million cellular subscribers at end 2008. Globe and Digitel reported 24.7 million and 8.1 million cellular users, respectively, at end 2008.
Their combined 68million subscribers imply a penetration rate of more than 75percent of the country's estimated 90.3 million population at end 2008.
Santiago earlier welcomed the plan of Express Telecommunication Co. Inc. to re-enter the lucrative mobile telephone market and compete.
"In any highly active markets, the more combative the rivalry, the greater the potential tangible benefits to consumers in terms of superior services and more affordable user rates," he said.
The Catanduanes lawmaker said consumers would definitely be better served by the coming out of any new market actors.

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