June 23, 2006 at 1:37 pm · Authored by Ewan · Filed under SMS

Link: INQ7 Business - Globe slams Smart for ‘predatory pricing’.
Over to the Philippines this afternoon where executives at Globe Telecom are having an absolute fit at their competitors, Smart & Philipino Telephone Corp.

Both rivals have introduced an unlimited text plan for their customers: You pay P20 (this equates to about £0.21) per day and you can send unlimited texts.

What’s the big deal?

Well Globe’s executives reportedly think this could create a ‘virtual monopoly’ in the marketplace.

From a 100% consumer point of view, my position is: Total rubbish. Who cares. Bring down the price man! The price of SMS is ridiculous. We all know this. If two companies in the market are offering ‘unlimited’ text options, so be it. Globe should do so too. It’s called competition. If you can’t hack it, close up shop and move on.

You’ve all been getting HUGELY fat of stupidly inflated per message fees for YEARS.

10 cents to send a 160 character message? Just because the country’s population is hooked on sending text messages doesn’t mean you should have a right not to reduce your prices or, shock horror, have to respond to competitive downward pricing pressures.

Innovate. Develop more services that people want to use. Realise that your fat text revenues aren’t going to be around forever.