Back in the 90′s, SMS used to be free and unlimited with every SIM. Then, the telcos cut them off and offered free SMS quotas. Then they introduced promos and offered back unlimited text messaging.
This time around though, its becoming more of a problem rather than a convenience. And during times like elections, the issue has become more prominent — SMS spam.
Before the unlimited SMS were re-introduced, text spamming can be costly — that’s like Php1.00 for every SMS sent. Today, the just go and but a prepaid SIM from each of the carriers, load it up with as low as Php15 and sign up for unlimited text for 24 hours. That’s it — they can spam all they want without fear of being caught (it’s a prepaid number anyway).
One other solution would be to require registration for every prepaid SIM card bought but that would be close to impossible here in the Philippines (we’re very privacy-sensitive around here).
Or maybe, just make spamming a little more expensive like putting a cap in SMS transmission (e.g. 1 SMS per 10 seconds) or maybe just hike the free daily SMS into the hundreds (500 SMS per day perhaps?).
Is there any better way to stop or even just minimize SMS spam? Or is the unlimited SMS promo just too lucrative a sales funnel to even bother?
@jd.Obedoza
I completely disagree with you anti unlimited texting stance. For millions of people texting is a way to keep in touch with their friends, families, and loved ones.
How can you strip these people of their ability to communicate through text (at a reasonable rate) just because of these “scammers” and “spammers”?
REGISTRATION is the key. Nothing more.
@Kaye my sentiments exactly. If spam is the only reason, i think there are some other ways to prevent it. I have sms spam manager for text spam. For unwanted calls, i have spam manager. Some people i know dont mind the spam. They just put their phones on silent mode when sleeping.
Twitter: roiji
says:
i say NO. but i do hope telcos implement something like spammer report even to prepaid subscribers…
i don’t agree with capping the sending of SMS of 1 transmission per 10 seconds, because when your phone has ‘send to many’, it sends the message to at least 1 number per second…
and 500 messages is not good if you have “clans” (a social sms network).
and it would be foolish to call a 500-sms cap, unlimited.
Just cap the number of unlimited text recipients to 20 numbers. This will make the cost of spamming much more expensive.
No to unlimited text and yes to unlimited data/mobile Internet instead!
The only spam you’ll get is the regular spam from emails (which should be minimal if you don’t give your email address to some suspect websites). So unless the politicos know you personally, they won’t be able to send you political spam!
I still dream of the day when mobile email replaces SMS as our primary means of communicating wirelessly.
If I get spam sms, I simply just delete it. But in my case, I can’t report it to Smart since they’re the one spamming me with promo texts.
NO! NO! NO! the problem i think is the super cheap sim cards, my suggestion is to raise the price to php 1K (put like 800% E-VAT) therefore limiting somewhat the spammers to a couple of sims (coz you can report them all the time but they’ll just buy another sim and spam away again)
sim card should be considered as a high commodity like a php 3K celfone
registration is worthless since you can always provide dummy information…
I’m okay with putting a limit of SMS one can send daily like the 500 texts per day.
That is more than enough. I probably send about 400- 1,000 texts a month at most that’s why i signed up for Supertxt. Anyone who sends up to or more than 500 a day is most probably a spammer.
SMS will always be there no matter what. Even its free or even it could be costly. My mom don’t even know how to use her mobile phone in calling but she can do SMS.lol
Awful but true. Unlimited texting wont stop. Big time companies boast their promos in sms and it is their major marketing strategy to attract subscribers.
I agree with Manong. Raise the price of prepaid SIM cards. It’s almost shocking how you can buy a SIM for as low as 10 pesos today when it was 1,000 pesos when I bought my first ever Globe SIM in year 2000.