Posted: April 28th, 2003 | Author: Ederic | Filed under: News | No Comments »
TXTPower is on the Intl Herald Tribune today
‘Texting’ is as good as calling for Filipinos
By Carlos H. Conde
International Herald Tribune
Monday, April 28, 2003
http://www.iht.com/articles/94599.html
TALISAYAN, Philippines: The beach resort opened just eight months ago, but business during a prime vacation week this month was quite brisk – even though the place has no reservations office, no Web site, no fixed-line phone or Internet access.
The owners of Villa Arcadia, located in this town on the southern island of Mindanao about 550 miles (880 kilometers) south of Manila, had only a poorly printed brochure in bad English that listed two mobile phone numbers. Read entire article here.
Posted: April 26th, 2003 | Author: Ederic | Filed under: News | 2 Comments »
Addict Mobile Shows Smart’s Own Addiction: Addiction to Superprofits and Deception
By Anthony Ian M. Cruz
Spokesperson, TXTPower
Celfone: 0918-9234311
April 23, 2003
We in TXTPower welcome the statement of Rep. Abraham Mitra regarding the offensive “Addict Mobile” ads of Smart Communications. But allow us to add a few points.
This latest gimmick obviously wants to make it look attractive and “hip” to buy a phone at an amazing price – as high as P22,290.00 per piece. This, aside from paying the required steep monthly service fees for either 12 or 24 months.
Those gullible or rich enough may avail of a “free” phone but would have to pay at least P1,995.00 every month for 24 months in an onerous contract. If the contract is prematurely rescinded, any subscriber would pay a fine of as high as P20,000.00.
“Addict Mobile” is yet another proof that Smart will do ANYTHING just to clean its inventory of perhaps tens of thousands of hugely-expensive cellphones that cater only to the middle and upper classes and consequently tie them down to 24-month contracts that are so onerous.
It likewise shows that the most advanced features of General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) and Short Messaging Service (SMS) are made available by Smart only to its postpaid subscribers (read: mostly the elite on high-end plans) which number a miniscule few compared to the over eight million prepaid subscribers (read: the masa).
Monopolists of all stripes, like Smart, have an insatiable greed for profit. It seems to be ill content with its net incomes of P3.5-billion in 2001 and P6.3-billion in 2002. So greedy, Smart now wants billions more.
As a matter of course, we enjoin Rep. Mitra and other pro-consumer solons like Rep. Crispin Beltran to look into this issue. We challenge Congress to protect Smart subscribers, both current and prospective ones who may be preyed on by this amazing racket and take steps towards democratizing and bringing to the Filipino people the benefits of the cutting edge in cellular technology.