MANILA, Philippines -- Smart Communications and Globe Telecom have rejected a proposal to make text messaging free of charge, saying this would result in “inefficient and impaired” service and eventual collapse of the industry.

The legislators, in turn, complained of multiple and delayed transmittal of text messages and clogging of network systems at a hearing at the House of Representatives Wednesday.

Roy Ibay, legal counsel of Smart, said imposing a free short messaging service (SMS) would cause severe congestion in their network. According to Ibay, there are more than a billion incoming and outgoing text messages sent in the Philippines in a day.

In less than an hour, the system would crush “under the weight of a massive surge in SMS,” said Ibay.

“When this happens , both SMS and voice services would become unavailable throughout the country.”

“This will be a severe detriment to our more than 32 million customers who rely on our mobile phones for their basic personal and business communications,” he said.

Removing charges on SMS would also deprive income to more than a million Filipino families who sell pre-paid cards, he said.

Ibay said that SMS charges in the Philippines were already one of the lowest -- compared to P1.60 per SMS in Singapore; P2.70 in Thailand; P10.50 in Australia; P6.62 in Canada; P1.16 in Middle East; and P2.59 in the United Kingdom.

Rodolfo Salalima, senior vice president of Globe, agreed, saying that the proposal to make SMS free was “unrealistic,” and “not workable.”

“You want free unlimited text, then in return, you will get inefficient and impaired service. You, in turn, will get a clogged system,” Salalima said at the same hearing.

“And because text (messaging) will definitely be abused, our system may crush. In the end, free text equals to no text service at all.”

Salalima, however, said that Globe was open to reducing its charges not only on its intra-connection services – or SMS sent within the Globe network -- but also for messages sent to other networks. Maila Ager