The Philippines has approximately 35 Million cellular phone subscribers and at the current situation, this number is expected to grow until it reaches 42.5M.
Of the 35 million, 99% (34 M) are prepaid account holders and they contribute approximately 97% of the total revenues of the cellular phone companies. SMS accounts for a bulk of the income and in my rough estimate, the cellular providers made more than PhP60 Billion from prepaid subscribers text messages in 2006.
Going to the topic for today, a friend once told me that among the cellular phone users in the country, the prepaid subscribers are most prone to abuses. The reason is simple. While the post-paid subscribers are given detailed monthly summaries their their charges, the prepaid accounts are not. Therefore, should there be incorrect charges; they have no way of knowing it. they never see any evil, even if it's already draining their wallets.
That statement may actually be true. In today’s Inquirer article, Conrado Banal wrote about a cellular phone content provider that victimizes unknowing subscribers. It is alleged that,
What now?
Of the 35 million, 99% (34 M) are prepaid account holders and they contribute approximately 97% of the total revenues of the cellular phone companies. SMS accounts for a bulk of the income and in my rough estimate, the cellular providers made more than PhP60 Billion from prepaid subscribers text messages in 2006.
Going to the topic for today, a friend once told me that among the cellular phone users in the country, the prepaid subscribers are most prone to abuses. The reason is simple. While the post-paid subscribers are given detailed monthly summaries their their charges, the prepaid accounts are not. Therefore, should there be incorrect charges; they have no way of knowing it. they never see any evil, even if it's already draining their wallets.
That statement may actually be true. In today’s Inquirer article, Conrado Banal wrote about a cellular phone content provider that victimizes unknowing subscribers. It is alleged that,
The company sends prepaid subscribers a ring tone, for instance, and then without much ado, bills them automatically. Yes, whether you want it or not!Should Banal’s accusations prove to be correct, the company must have in effect stolen an amount that is larger the entire Jose Velarde account.
And so, by now, the company must have already raked in billions of pesos out of the racket.
What now?
3 comments:
olaaaahhh! What can I say?
Okey lang tong cellular company na to? Buti na uso ang internet, kungdi, patay na naman si juan...
Smart likes to send stuff even if you haven't subscribed to their other services. Gulat ka na lang ubos na load mo.
BTW, thanks for dropping by my blog. I mentioned you in my new post.
Ingats!
Hi Francesca and Fionski! let's do what we can to stop these abuses. A few pesos cheated from a subscriber per week means several hundreds of millions of pesos. That's big time plunder!
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