‘Telecoms price war beneficial to workers’

Cutthroat competition between the country’s leading telecommunications firms has resulted in a win for the Filipino workers.

Former senator and Trade Union Congress of the Philippines general secretary Ernesto Herrera said Filipino workers abroad and even those working in the country are benefiting from the price wars among telecommunications companies.

"Cheaper calls resulting from the price war are a blessing for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and their families as well as local workers and other consumers amid soaring consumer prices," Herrera said in a statement.

Herrera pointed out that lower telecommunications costs are undeniably giving much-needed respite to consumers beset by soaring prices of just about all goods and services due to the inflationary impact of the expanded value-added tax and rising energy costs at this time.

"The intense price war in telecommunications is definitely welcome economic relief to the average Filipino household. By all means, regulators should let the unfettered competition play out," Herrera added.

Mobile telephone operators Smart Communications Inc. and Pilipino Telephone Corp. (Piltel) are now offering subscribers a marked down flat rate of P10 for a maximum of 10 minutes of calls to Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) landlines.

Smart and Piltel have also slashed to P10 per minute their international direct distance calls, and also to P10 the cost of each overseas text message.

For its part, PLDT has offered permanent unlimited national direct distance calls at P10 each, regardless of the call’s duration. The discounted rates are applicable to PLDT-to-PLDT, PLDT-to-Smart and PLDT-to-Piltel calls.

Mobile and fixed-line operator Globe Telecom Inc., on the other hand, reduced Handyphone-to-Handyphone calls to just 10 centavos per second, in lieu of the P6.50 per minute minimum charge. Globe has also extended its toll-free domestic direct distance calls between Globe landlines.

The cheaper rates are on top of the extended unlimited local text messaging promotions of telecommunications providers.

According to Herrera, regulators should allow free and competitive market forces to determine the true cost of all telecommunications services.

TUCP said they have no actual data to show how much workers would be able to save but the labor group said the cheap calls would benefit a lot of OFWs and local workers.