MANILA, Philippines - Globe Telecom Inc., a joint venture between conglomerate Ayala Corp. and Singapore Telecom, yesterday started offering the world’s first ever all-unlimited roaming service for calls, short messaging system (SMS), and mobile internet to its post-paid subscribers.
In a press conference, Globe head for international business group Rizza Maniego-Eala said the Globe All-Unli Roam would initially be offered in Thailand from Oct. 11 to Nov. 12 to protect its roaming subscribers from billshock or the high surge of charges on a postpaid bill.
“We are initially offering this in Thailand due to the increasing number of travelers as well as existing roaming partners but we will expand this to other countries,” Eala stressed.
She pointed out that Globe has the world’s widest roaming coverage with partnerships spanning across 200 countries and has more than 600 mobile operators across the globe.
“We also have the widest range of roaming offers and promos, with our unlimited roaming Internet promo available in 19 countries and our PowerRoam offer which is fully consumable with up to 75 percent discount on roaming rates available in 16 destinations,” she added.
Under the promo, she explained that postpaid subscribers travelling to Thailand would get as much as 90 percent discount from existing roaming rates by subscribing to any of the three unlimited roaming combo services.
For as low as $10 postpaid subscribers on roaming in Thailand would have unlimited roaming mobile Internet for one day and $27 for a three-day variant while for $30 a day and $90 for three days wherein subscribers would have unlimited roaming calls and mobile Internet.
Subscribers could also avail of unlimited roaming calls, texts, and mobile Internet combo for a day at $40 and for three days at $120. The all-unlimited roaming services would cover all roaming partners in Thailand including Advanced Info service Public (AIS), Total Access Communication (DTAC), and True Move Company Ltd.
Eala said Globe has existing roaming promos in several countries in Southeast Asia including Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Taiwan, and Indonesia as well as other European countries such as United Kingdom, Spain, Ireland, Italy, Czech Republic, and Germany.
Other countries with roaming promos include Australia, Canada, China, Hong Kong, India, Macau, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, and even the US.
Eala said the telecom provider is gearing up to offer more innovative solutions covering more destinations in the future.
She said average cost of call in Southeast Asia is about P25 per minute while text messages range between P10 and P20 per SMS, and P20 for every kilobyte of Internet download.
She warned that the cost of watching about three YouTube videos abroad would cost a subscriber as much as P240,000 so it is more prudent for them to subscribe to the Globe All-Unli Roam promo.