Jul
News has it that the cost of a text/txt/SMS message sent was reduced to 50 centavos from the original one peso rate. This was included in the State of the Nation Address (SONA) of Philippine President Gloria-Macapagal Arroyo (GMA) yesterday to the delight of Filipinos addicted to texting.
Cell phone addiction in the Philippines is severe. Even six-year old kids know how to send and receive text/txt/SMS messages here.
For service providers, Globe Telecoms said that their 50-centavo promo on their text messaging service is in the works and will soon hit the newspapers and probably TV ads. On the other hand, Smart Telecommunications said that it gave in to the request of GMA before her SONA. I think Sun Cellular did the same.
If you are not fond of the Unlimited Promos of text messaging providers (which only apply to mobile phones belonging to the same network) here’s your chance to text all you can at 50 cents per text message to all networks (read: other networks included). This text promo will last until October 28, 2008 only. Depending on economic conditions and server load, some service providers may cancel this promo at an earlier time. However, it’s also possible that some will extend the promo to capture a greater market share of the ever-growing text messaging and mobile phone market in the country.
Lastly, since the government has been pushing for free texting in the Philippines for quite some time, maybe this is a good sign for those who are addicted to texting. Who knows if someday the Philippines will become a free-text country. Let’s all hope that happens soon because many Filipinos are spending so much on cell phone load everyday which makes telecommunication companies richer by the minute. 
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Tags: Free Texting, Philippines, texting
One Response to "Reduced Text/Txt/SMS Messaging Cost Included in GMA’s SONA"
September 30th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
[...] government can make more money from cell phone users. This new taxation scheme is contrary to the SONA of Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo which boasted a 50% discount on texting (50 cents per text message) until October 28 (which obvously [...]