During the SONA earlier this week, Pres. Arroyo proudly announces that she was able to convince the cellular companies to drop the rate of inter-network SMS down by half — from Php1.00 to Php0.50. What she failed to mention was that this an an orchestrated gimmick.
The first tie I heard about it on TV, I thought this lady still has enough clout to convince the telcos to drop 15% to 20% of their annual revenues just to please the masses. Now that’s like a huge, huge campaign contribution. What could she have offered in exchange for that?
In my last month’s entry at GMANews.tv, “There was a time when SMS was free“, I mentioned how it would be impossible for telcos to offer SMS for free and it was for purely economic reasons. Dropping the SMS rates is actually a welcomed move — IF it were permanent.
But no, it’s not even a system-wide rate change. One needs to register and pay as well as maintain a certain amount of load balance in order to enjoy this price cut. So yeah, I’d call this a dud.
The promo rate for SMS covers all mobile providers — Globe and Smart and Sun and their subsidiaries — and officially started last July 28. The promo will last until October and could be earlier depending on the bottomline.
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wow!
amazed.. amazed.. amazed.. nice way to outsmart the public!
They are using the free sms bait to divert our attention from the short expiry date of our cellphone loads.
The last thing I need is some idiot using free text to call me at all hours of the night with:
Cn u b my txtm8t?
I say, double the cost of sms and remove the load expiration date.
@Downloader.. sabi nila “content is king” mas mainam na tanong, pano magkaron ng utak ala-yuga, or writing skills ala-yuga..
ako rin blog starter and nakakadugo sa ilong.. hehe
as for the 50centavo text, “I’m sorry..” limited promo lang, sana for life na..
@bloggista: sa hirap ng buhay ngayon dito sa pinas, mahal mag RALLY.. kelangan ng pondo, 500 per head.. haaa..aaay…
i agree with issai. they can generate more income in that way. people wants freebies after all.
P.S.
bakit #1 ang blog mo Yuga sa tech? hehe.. from a newbie’s POV.
Actually, its not that high compared to outher countries. Imagine US, they pay 20cents per sms message. so thats 9php per text…. 900% higher compared to us…. what do you think?
Well, instead of blaming the bugger President for all of our misfortunes, why not start rallying together behind this move. We all know the Telco’s were overpricing SMS for a long time - its time people unite and tell all these greedy buggers we’ve had enough.