Unlimited text messaging, voice calls temporarily suspended next week

MANILA, Philippines - Starting next week, unlimited text messaging and voice call promotions will be temporarily suspended, the Philippines’ National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) said. The move was undertaken to prevent network abuse especially during Christmas and New Year, the period when text messages and voice calls are expected to double, the NTC said. Globe Telecom Inc. and Touch Mobile’s unlimited night calls will not be in effect from December 23, starting 11 in the evening up to six in the morning of December 25, the agency said in an order. The same arrangement will also be suspended starting 11 in the evening of December 30 up to six in the morning of January 1, 2009. Globe was also given the right to terminate calls made for an unreasonably prolonged length of time. At end-September, the Globe and Touch Mobile have combined subscriber base of 23.7 million, up 24 percent from last year. Similarly, Smart Communications Inc. will also impose a suspension of voice and text message offerings starting December 23. The company’s All Text Combo with Unlimited Night Calling Promo will not be available on December 23, 24, 25, 30, 31 and January 1, 2009. The Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co.’s subscriber base reached 34.2 million, 20.9 million belong to Smart and the remaining 13.3 million are with Talk 'N Text. Despite the order, telecommunications companies are currently preparing for the surge in text messaging and voice traffic, an NTC official said. The country’s 65 million mobile phone users send an average of 700 million to a billion text messages a day. - GMANews.TV