Consumers score victory as NTC stops Smart, Piltel plan to ‘forcibly expire’ free text
Posted: January 25th, 2007 | Author: TXTPower | Filed under: News | No Comments »Consumer advocacy group TXTPower scored a victory over telecom giants Smart Communications and Pilipino Telephone Corp. after the National Telecommunications Commission ordered the two firms to suspend plans to “forcibly expire” free text allocations and free airtime load to subscribers.
Smart and Piltel, operator of the Talk N Text brand, run the nation’s largest network and have the biggest number of subscribers among all networks.
“This is a victory for consumers sick and tired of big companies’ daily acts of abuse and disrespect,” said TXTPower spokesperson Anthony Ian Cruz. “The NTC should make their order permanent since we there’s no rhyme or reason in the plan of Smart and Piltel.”
In a letter dated January 22, NTC Commissioner Abraham Abesamis wrote TXTPower’s Cruz that government regulators have directed “Smart and Piltel to hold in abeyance the implementation of the expiration of free SMS together with the airtime on all e-load and regular top-up transactions until further orders from the Commission effective 15
January 2007.” Read the rest of this entry »