MANILA, Philippines - Leading wireless provider Smart Communications rolled out a new unlimited nationwide voice call service, aiming to retain its 38 million subscribers to amid competitive offerings by rival telecommunication companies.

The service called “Smartalk” will be made available starting June 26 until Sept. 30 this year, after which the company will determine whether to enhance or continue this promotion.

It does not require any changes in the subcriber’s SIM or cell phone number and can be enjoyed by Smart Buddy and Smart Gold subscribers.

During the launch Wednesday, Smart officials assured that the increase in the volume of calls expected to arise from this offering could be accommodated by the existing network infrastructure of Smart.

Smart said the service had been pilot-tested in Cebu and the result was an increase in revenues. In fact, Smart said revenues were lifted as the volume of usage more than compensated for the unit price.

“With this new service, Smart subscribers all over the country need only one phone, one SIM and one number, to be able to make unlimited, crystal-clear calls to over 38 million Smart numbers anytime, anywhere,” said Orlando Vea, chief wireless advisor of Smart and also one of its founders.

“This is our way of helping out our subscribers in these difficult times and is in response to the government’s call for more affordable telecommunications services,” Vea added.

Under this new service, Smart subscribers will be able to avail of the service by purchasing loads for unlimited calls which come in two denominations.

The first is “Smartalk 100” which for P100 offers five days of unlimited calls to any subscriber on the Smart network anywhere in the country, at any time of the day.

Another variant, “Smart 500,” offers 30 days of unlimited calls to any subscriber on the Smart network for only P500—thus reducing the cost to as low as P17 for an entire day of unlimited calling to any number nationwide.