Smart, Piltel offer lower IDD rates to 3 ME countries

Good news to those who have relatives or friends working in Saudi Arabia, Oman and Qatar .

Under a new industry-wide promo, they can call their loved ones in these countries for only 20 US cents per minute using their cellular phones from Jan. 1 to 31, 2007.

Smart Communications and subsidiary Pilipino Telephone Corp. (Piltel) are among the telecom operators participating in this promotional offering.

To avail of the promotional rate, Smart subscribers should first dial *2007 + 00 + country code + area code + phone number.

Hence, a call to Riyadh , Saudi Arabia will be made by keying in *2007+ 00 + 966 + 1 + 9244444 or *20070096619244444. Failure to key in *2007 shall subject the caller to the regular IDD rate of 40 US cents per minute.

Company officials said this unprecedented promo lowering IDD rates of all carriers was an initiative of Sen. Joker Arroyo, who heads the Senate public services committee, together with the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC). The move is in line with the government’s efforts to assist Filipino migrant workers and their families.

They added that the promotional IDD rate is a timely New Year’s gift to overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), mostly those deployed in the Middle East.

Statistics from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) Labor Assistance Center show that 40 percent of nearly one million OFWs all over the world are in the Middle East .

Earlier this month, Smart launched its OFW brand Smart Pinoy in Bahrain. The company said Filipinos in Qatar, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and other areas in the Middle East can also expect to experience Smart Pinoy via a fiesta-themed event soon.

Smart Pinoy covers a range of Smart products and services that cater to the needs of OFWs and their families like IDD, international text and MMS, international roaming, Smart Padala and Smart Load.

Meanwhile, officials disclosed that the international cable facilities being utilized by Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT) and Smart have suffered major cable breaks due to the recent earthquake that took place near Taiwan .

As a result, IDD and broadband Internet services are currently intermittent. Domestic PLDT and Smart voice and data services however are operating normally.

The international consortium operating these cable systems has already mobilized cable ships to repair the affected segments, and restoration work is being conducted round the clock.

In the meantime, company officials said they maximizing the use of available international linkages and finding alternative routes to hasten restoration of normal service.