Ronaldo (1)The Cost of Text Messaging (SMS) and Mobile Internet Browsing in the Philippines
Lately, the Philippine Senate led by its Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile conducted a series of “hearings” or inquiries regarding the state of the Philippines’ telecoms industry. Finally, some government body is suddenly interested in looking at how badly the consumers are treated and “cheated” by the country’s telecommunication providers.
And this was not due to hundreds of thousands of people crying out loud about the “injustices” of this oligopoly in the country’s telecoms business, but was purely “accidental.”
Senator Enrile just uncovered this when he noticed that his prepaid mobile phone’s account load value mysteriously vanished, or diminished.
I have written some articles in the past about my (bad) experiences with these telecoms service providers. Which will probably remain a “rant” since our government turned a deaf ear to the cries of its people.
Now that election season is coming – some “politicos” will instantly become consumer advocates and will spend time delivering privilege speeches in the hollowed, err, hallowed hall of Congress. Perhaps its time for us to take advantage of this as well.
Now is probably the time that all complaints and pains consumers get from these service providers be heard. Now is the time that finally, someone in the government will take genuine action against these cheaters and bring justice to everyone.
Have you ever wondered how much it costs us for every SMS or text message we send?
We know that we are allowed to send up to a maximum of 160 characters for each text message. These 160 characters are actually equivalent to 140bytes of data. A kilobyte is equivalent t0 1,024 bytes, thus for every text message we send, we assume we are sending 0.1367Kilobyte of data, and we are charged somewhere from Php0.50 to Php1.00 per text message.
Let’s use the one peso charge per text message sent – common to prepaid users and to those low-monthly postpaid subscribers. That means we pay Php7.315 per kilobyte of data sent to the service providers.
On the other hand, these telecom companies charge Php0.15 for every kilobyte of usage if you browse the internet using your mobile phone. This means, if you browse this blog using your blackberry or internet-enabled phone, you will pay Php9.30 because the homepage is about 62 kilobytes of data to load.
So how much will you pay if you download “Careless Whisper” MP3 over the internet? Lets assume the full song is about 4MB – so that’s Php600,000.00 in your next month’s bill.
Now if you use the charge per kilobyte the telecom companies apply for sending text messages (Php7.315) – downloading and listening to George Michael’s song with a gyrating lady in the background will cost you a whooping Php29,260,000.00!!! Now that’s probably more than enough money to pay to go and see George Michael perform live with a dozen gyrating ladies all around you.
In contrast my DSL provider bills me Php999.00 a month for an unlimited usage. There is no restriction as to how big are the files I download over the internet. The technologies used here is no different than the technology used in sending and receiving SMS or browsing the web with mobile phones.
So what are we missing, dear Senators and Congressmen? Our country’s deregulated telecom industry actually prevented new players from coming in and give some pretty competition.
The industry is still controlled by these few service providers and unfortunately, they are holding the government by the neck – leaving us consumers hapless, helpless. Its the sad reality.
Sobrang pahirap nga yan sa atin. Just imagine sa ibang bansa ang mura lang ng texting and even calls. Dito sa atin lahat ng Telecoms company ang yayaman na sa sobrang mahal ng singil. Let’s keep our fingers crossed sana me mangyari bago mag election. Paguwapuhan yan for sure! Pero mas guapo tayo sa kanila Mr. B! Hahaha
I agree Chef Ambo, just imagine dito lang naman big deal ang mobile calling and texting eh. Only in the Philippines.
Ms Snow, imagine if just 25 million filipinos send 2 text messages a day – that’s 50million pesos in revenue everyday. Tiba tiba nga sila dito.
Yeah…Wow, naisip ko tuloy sana sa akin na lang mapunta yang 50 million pesos para makapag-business na ako fulltime.
Hahaha, thanks bro ha. Yup I do hope too that we Filipinos get honest to goodness service from our Telecoms providers. Sana bumawi naman sila.
The Cost of Text Messaging (SMS) and Mobile Internet Browsing in the Philippines | Bloggista.com…
Have you ever wondered how much it costs us for every SMS or text message we send?…
wow, these are lots of numbers down here bro! i am contenting myself with text promos. mahal pala, nakakabutas ng bulsa ehehe!
Hehe. I was in Cebu the other day and Smart launched its Unlimited Call service for just Php500.00 a month. That sounds so promising I may try that one when they offer it here in Manila. Not bad spending even 1000pesos a month for unlimited calls – so hopefully these telecoms giants return something good to its customers finally.
The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), which sets cellphone rates, admitted that it failed to act on complaints submitted by mobile phone subscribers.
http://philippinetelecommunications.blogspot.com/2009/06/manila-philippines-national.html
There have been so many complaints bro but NTC is just toothless on these things. Maybe some people there are not doing their job.
The telecommunications companies take advantage of the fact that the Filipinos are already addicted to texting and so do not mind paying a lot for it. And it has already become a necessity in our everyday lives.
And we don’t have much choices unfortunately. Funny, the industry was regulated to encourage other new players but it actually killed them.
Hi Bloggista,
This headline is something close to my heart, rather, to my pokects! In my profession, getting in touch is a must. I used to have just one mobile carrier, but, crazy as it sounds, I now have three! One for each of the major networks out there.
In G, I have a monthly plan of just 800 (plus) which I pay more per month of course for calls and text messages both personal and not.
In my Su network, I spend a monthly fee of 450. That’s prepaid. I get to have an unlimited number of text messages plus 4 hours free time. What’s good about it is that I make use of the YM service that is unique to this network (I think). For paying only 300/month I get to Chat with my online friends as much as I want. Of course, the main reason for availing of this subscription is to always keep in touch with my sister who works abroad.
In the Sm network, I just pay 20 Php for two days worth of 100 text messages in the same network. It comes handy whenever I go to the provinces where only this network is available, of course, you can now get in touch with G and Sn nowadays.
Going back to the post: It is really a pain in the A@# knowing that we are helpless when it comes to telecommunication charges. The day of the celfones has come and we are slaves to their use. Now, for those raised eyebrows that just raised, if you aren’t affected by the use of celfones, please don’t react about my comment, this is just my opinion that I liked to share with the author of this interesting post.
Bloggista, I got a little carried away. The next time I listen to an mp3, I’ll be thankful that I got it thru a monthly DSL subscription and not because I downloaded it from my phone. Unless, it’s from a wifi of course, bu that is another topic, right?
Z
Hey Z, thanks for the visit and a very engaging comment. I too, have an Sun plan ( for its unlimited call feature), several Globe sims both prepaid and postpaid, and Smart. Just like you, I just need these 3.
But no matter how frustrating, I still couldn’t help but hope that someday these big guys play fair with its customers. All fingers crossed.
When you said all fingers crossed. I imagined each and every one of them. he he he. LMAO
That may be the only thing we can do. Hope upon hope that these networks who provide our daily fix to communicate would be enlightened to finally give us a chance to enjoy the service that was free a long time ago.
Remember when G was just starting and it pioneered text messaging? There was a commercial about a mute couple texting each other before meeting in a restaurant? That started it, I guess. Everyone wanted to own a globe phone and text other people. I remember that the service then was 300 unlimited for the whole month.
Those were the days…
Z
HI B,
This is a very disturbing fact about our telecom industry. Crossing fingers till someone makes a change that protects the consumers’ rights.
Hi B,
It is the weekend again. hope all is well. Do try to get some rest this time
heheh I know our motto is to rest when we’re dead but it doesnt hurt to take a little breather hehehe 
xoxo
IM JUST WONDERING WHY EVERYONES NOT USING SUN.
THE THING IS IF YOUR LIVING ON THE CIITY OR SOMEWHERE WHERE THEIR SIGNAL EXIST THEN I THINK YOU SHOULD USE SUNNETWORK.
THEIR POST AND PRE PAID PLANS ARE SO CHEAP THAN OTHER NETWORKS…
-Nhoel of http://keywordspeak.com
Thank you for a great article on this Roel. With your computations, you gave your readers some insights as to how these telecom companies charge customers like us.
A nice illustration of facts on cost of addictive text messaging. I just wish our leaders the don’t just become foolish actors in the stage, but act seriously on this issue.
Well, it’s only in the Philippines–a deregulated telecom industry with only 3 players much like similar with the downstream deregulated oil industry “kuno” but still controlled by the big 3. And for our politicos to earn pogi points they need to ride high on issues like this vanishing loads that affects a big chunk of consumers in order to gain maximum exposure to suit their political ambitions. Look? Sen.Juan Ponce Enrile is now being labeled as a “hero to the PINOY TEXTER” kuno. Anyway nice post bro! Keep it up!
Sometimes we have to face bad situation due to reasons and not taken care from the administration. but all thing in leaders hand effective steps required from there side.
But at last…. the load is now extended to its desired time.
I still dream of those days when text messaging was free. Oh well.
Hello,
Firstly, I will start off by apologizing for my use of proper, bona fide, straight up, native US/Intl. English.
Your article sounds, IMHO, very biased and presents quite a bit of unnecessary flaming as well as, even worse, completely bull-shit figures. Yes, texting worldwide, if measured and compared bit-for-bit with “data” services will always end up being much more expensive. During the time I spent in the Philippines, I was using Globe on some post-paid plan (you’d have to be absolutely out of your mind to prepay, they charge you much, much more), as well as prepaid SUN occasionally, when I needed it. However, probably because of my IP geolocation, I find myself unable to get a clear rate from them on what they charge for prepaid text messages (I get silently redirected back to the page I came from).
However, that would be only to show some of the higher-end/ “more expensive” cell phone company’s rates. Instead, I have some “figures” from Sun Cellular. To avoid serious ambiguity like the author, I will state exactly where I’m coming from.
What I’m looking at here is the “Sun Cellular p30 Call&Text Combo” (because I don’t want to wait for moderation, I will refrain from excessive linking, however I’m sure you native Filipinos are well-aware of these prepaid deals. So the ad clearly states, that you get 120 text messages (within the Sun Cellular network) for your 30PHP. Now, it doesn’t take a genius to do simple division. 10/10 = 1, 12/3 = 4, 4*1=4 meaning that each peso pays for 4 text messages. Now, they don’t specify the actual type of message, but I’ll assume these are low level SMS text messages (if I am wrong, and these are like MMS, then 1-to-4 is definitely worth it). For my own reference, according to a quote from Citibank N.A (provided courtesy of Google Inc.’s Google.com), 30 Philippine pesos are currently “worth” about $0.63USD, and, similarly, 1 PHP is $0.02USD (rounded to the hundredth decimal place). Two cents per text… Not bad.
To compare, I currently have an unlimited plan with AT&T (in the US, of course). This means I can text whoever the hell I want, anytime, anyday, any network, for free (within all of North America (US., CA., and Mex.) and the UK. would be the fine-print there, but still pretty good). However, it gets better. I can simply buy a base-account, and from there I can create sub-accounts. So the numbers work out like this: They provide several “family” plans, depending on your needs. Now there are 5 people in my “family” who have their own cell phone/phone line. The first two phones/lines are $69.99USD (3,348.96 PHP). Each additonal line is $9.99USD (478.01PHP). There are five phones/phone lines, so that equates to 69.99+(9.99*3), which is a grand total $99.96USD per month (4,783.00 PHP). This also, in addition to unlimited texting, includes 700 shared minutes with “Rollover” (meaning any “minutes” I don’t use are added on to the next month, indefintely, thus if I don’t make 1 phone call for a year for some odd reason, I have 8,400 minutes (which would be then rolled over to the next year infinitely). In addition, if I call during nights (between 9pm and 6am CST) and weekends, no minutes are used. Furthermore, if all of the minutes are used, and its an emergency or something, and I really need/want to make a call, I can, however, I’ll get heavilly penalized for it. In addition, if I call another cell phone, no matter the network, that call is also free, and doesn’t count against my minutes (so minutes are only for calling landlines between 6:00:01am and 8:59:59pm CST (during the day).) The only caveat is, if you only use one text, you’ll still have to pay 4,783.00 PHP for that month. (however, apparently Filipinos “love texting” so I don’t think this would be a problem for anyone).
However, that’s really unfair to compare to your absolutely stupid “by the text” cell phone plans. However, just to compare, I’ll look at another sample prepaid plan from AT&T. And you can also get cheaper/less reliable networks too, like Cricket Wireless (actually they’re pretty decent, as long as, in my area, you are within the city limits of Omaha, otherwise you’ll find holes pretty easy, however it does more or less work across the entire US.).
So, they give you a few options/”feature packages”. You can buy 200 messages for $4.99USD (238.77PHP), 1000 messages for $9.99USD (478.01PHP), or an unlimited number of messages for $19.99USD (956.51PHP) (all valid for 1 month/30 days, however, you can buy prepaid that is valid for 365 days also).
So, lets say you are stupid, and buy the 200 messages with a “Simple Rate Plan”. This means that you get the text messages plus $0.25USD per minute phone calls, with an additional “Airtime Card”. 200/4.99 would be about 40 text messages per USD. This would equate to (200/238.77) less than 1 text message per Philippine peso (0.83 PHP).
All I can say is: “PWNED!” So shut your mouth: even with absolutely ridiculously priced prepaid plans, your Philippine rates are MUCH, MUCH cheaper than an example US prepaid plan. US: 1 text for 0.83 PHP, or PH: 4 texts for 1 PHP. The math is simple. And no, AT&T isn’t that great, it’s certainly not the best. I live in a rural area outside of Yutan, NE – 68073, and I can tell you AT&T doesn’t work AT ALL within the entire city of Yutan. I never had much of a problem at all with both Globe and Sun all throughout the entire city of Cebu. Your article is 100% completely baseless.
Thank you, and regards,
Dr. Zack J.H. Buhman, Ph.D.
Well, actually I forgot to use my one link. Here’s a pimpin song (2009):
http://www.playlist.com/searchbeta/tracks#When%20love%20takes%20over%20David%20Guetta%20ft.Kelly%20Rowland
Click the first/only play button (or the song’s title) in the search list.
Oh, and one minor correction, I meant to say this, in the last paragraph:
.83 texts for 1 PHP for AT&T (in the US) compared to 4 texts for 1 PHP for SUN (in the Philippines).
Wow! Your comment is even longer than my “rant” article – LOL! I appreciate it a lot.
I think I agree with most of the points you want to clarify. I just have to point out some nice stuffs you got with your US phone plans vs. Philippines phone plan (and oh, btw, this article is directed towards the service of Globe and Smart – and not Sun – who’s actually offering cheaper rates – 4 texts for 1 peso. You can’t have that with Globe and Smart, probably soon…)
- Unused credits are rolled-over the following month: Wow this one rocks! Here in the Philippines, it isnt, in fact they expire, and in many cases, they just disappear – the very reason these providers are now the subject of a senate investigation.
- Sun is offering better value than Globe and Smart – that is why I will settle for every 2 minutes being cut-off from a conversation, since it’s unlimited for just about 300pesos a month.
- For Globe and Smart, its 1Peso per text vs. 0.83 per text with AT&T – still yours is cheaper.
- We need new competition to go against Globe and Smart. Sun is a newer player, struggling, but admirable because they offer cheaper rates. Hopefully they can upgrade their equipments/services and more people will switch to them.
wow. that was expensive! i guess it’sa good thing i am now using sun unlimited call and text. hehehe.
Never surf the Internet on your mobile phone using the per-kilobyte charge. Good thing that we can now use the Internet on a per 30 minutes basis (P10 per 30 mins.)