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Filipinos send 600 million text messages daily — NTC

Written by Paolo Luis G. Montecillo -- BusinessWorld Saturday, 30 August 2008 01:11

FILIPINOS HAVE been sending more text messages due to lower costs, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) said on Friday.

 

About 600 million text messages were being sent daily as of June, said Edgardo V. Cabarrios, director of the NTC common carrier and authorization division.

He said the number was a "conservative estimate," saying there is no way to count how many messages had been actually sent.

The NTC estimate was based on the premise that the country’s estimated 60 million mobile phone subscribers send an average of 10 text messages each daily.

Mr. Cabarrios said it has been harder to find out how many text messages are sent with the advent of text promotions that allow users to send an unlimited number of messages for a fixed price.

He could not give a yearly comparison, but noted that as of December, they estimated the number of text messages sent daily at 570 million.

The NTC said in earlier reports that there were 500 million daily text messages in 2006, and half that number the year before. Mr. Cabarrios noted that people used to text 30% less than they do now, before text promotions were introduced.

In an interview, Smart Communications, Inc. Spokesman Ramon Isberto said the NTC’s estimate was too conservative. He said Smart alone could easily hit 600 million messages a day.

Smart, together with its low-cost brand, Talk N’ Text, is the market leader with 33 million subscribers. It is followed by Ayala-led Globe Telecom, Inc., which has 22 million subscribers, while Gokongwei-led mobile brand Sun Cellular is the country’s smallest network. Officials from both companies were not available for comment.