Mobile unlimited call & text services: giving consumer great options

Image by Bah Humbug

During its infancy stages, texting service was free of charge. As the popularity of GSM texting progressed, the unpleasant news echoed across the pioneer generation of texters: the cost of 1peso/text.

Smart and Globe were popular choices; although there were other networks such as Islacom and Mobiline. The birth of Suncellular and its aggressive 'free call and text' strategy modified consumer mobile communication. And the rest is history.

Today we enjoy improved services (no more good morning messages at night due to text lags), cheaper rates, and unlimited calls and text messaging to name a few. The new cellphone models also contribute to price slashing. Picture messages for instance (Php15 for b/w graphics), a craze back in the black and white cellphone era, is almost a thing of the past as the public now enjoy mobile blogging, MMS, em@il on the go, and so on.

Red Mobile, Suncellular, Globe, and Smart offer a wide variety of unlimited services. I'll give an overview on each servicer based on personal experience.

Suncellular- Pros: To the fortunate subscriber who has good coverage, Php20 will give 2 days of free same-network texting and 20minutes airtime. Php30 Call & Text Combo for 40minutes sun-to-sun calls, 120 sun to sun texts and 40 texts to other networks valid for 3 days. Other flexible promos are also available. Cons: To me, it is a nightmare to use this service mainly because the reception is too weak in our area. I initially used it back in 2006 and is quite surprising how it has not improved over the years.

Red Mobile- Pros: red to red local rate is very reasonable and is the lowest among Philippine telecoms at Php0.50 per minute. Countrywide 3G coverage. Cons: I bought one last month, then realized I do not know anyone who's using red yet. A 3G phone for a spare sim? Yes, because it runs on 3G.

Globe- recently introduced Duo. Globe Duo is a service, thus existing Globe sim may be used. There's no need to buy a new sim. Subscriber will have 2 phone numbers: the current mobile number (i.e. 0905*******) and will be given a new Duo landline number (i.e. 02******). Pros: unlimited Duo to any landline, any Landline to Duo, and Duo to Duo calls. For prepaid users: Php125 is valid for 5 days and Php350 for 14 days. Cons: Duo to Duo call means the service apply provided the other person is also Duo-subscribed or is using a landline. Costly if not abused, so make sure to get the most out of it. Postpaid users add P399 on top of the regular bill and has a 3 month lock period. Pre-termination fee of Php1200 apply to postpaid subscribers. Initially available in NCR and Cebu only.

Note that Duo is for CALLS ONLY. For texting, I personally like unlimited globe to globe text for 80pesos/5days. Others want more flexibility by using the TEXT ALL service which gives a set number of free texts to globe and other networks. This is good instead of the standard 1peso/text to other networks.

Smart- Pros: Cheaper compared to Globe's Duo. Priced at Php100/5 days unlimited calls or Php500/30 days. Cons: Compromised signal reception perhaps due to heavy subscriber traffic.
Same as with Globe, Smart offers flexible texting services.

Overall, it's a good thing to have this options available. Hopefully, telecom companies would also offer other unlimited services such as MMS, mobile email, internet, and all of those features that the latest handsets are capable of.