PLDT expands coverage of ‘free Internet’ program

SCREENGRAB from www.pldt.com

Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) upped the ante in the industry’s promo rivalry as it expanded its “free Internet” promo to a wider number of subscribers, lengthened the offer period to January next year and matched rival Globe Telecom’s free Facebook offer.

The move Friday means PLDT’s 72 million prepaid, postpaid and broadband subscribers will get free Internet through Jan. 5, 2015, on top of “unlimited” Facebook usage.

An analyst said this could take market share away from the country’s second-biggest telco, Globe of the Ayala group, which revived Friday a free Facebook offer for its 43 million Globe and Touch      Mobile subscribers starting Oct. 3. Globe did not say when its promo will end.

Jose Mari Lacson, head of research at stockbrokerage firm Campos Lanuza and Co., said this type of competition was “healthy” in the mature telco business.

 
At this stage in the industry, this is how it’s supposed to be—, you try to grab as much market share as possible,” Lacson said in an interview. “You can only expand the market by so much.”

 
He also noted that there would not be a significant impact on either PLDT’s or Globe’s revenues. Another big winner with free Internet promos, Lacson said, were makers of smartphones as subscribers seek to enhance their Internet experience.

PLDT shares rose 0.13 percent to P3,044 each yesterday while Globe also increased 1.83 percent to P1,665 as the benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi)  rose 0.71 percent.

Globe officials said the company had no plans right now to match PLDT’s latest free offer after its own Facebook promo.

The statement was a departure from the tone of Globe’s comments last week, when it suggested that PLDT was simply following its lead in terms of coming up with free promos. Globe earlier this year offered free Facebook for a limited time to its subscribers.

PLDT’’s announcement was a follow up to last week’s offer for its 66 million prepaid subscribers to have 30 megabytes of free Internet a day through Nov. 30. Those same limits apply to the new offer, PLDT said.

PLDT, meanwhile, said the move was a response to requests of its postpaid and broadband subscribers “to be included in the special offer.”

“It is part of our overall strategy in accelerating mobile Internet adoption and usage in the country,” Charles A. Lim, executive vice president and head for wireless consumer business at Smart, said in a statement.

To avail of the free mobile Internet offer, subscribers just have to maintain an airtime balance of at least one peso, or be subscribed to any load bucket/promo. They can register each day by simply sending “FREE” to the number “9999.” Registration is free. They will receive an SMS confirmation upon successful registration.

PLDT noted that data charges will however apply to peer-to-peer uploads and downloads, videos (unless embedded in Facebook), VOIP and messaging (except for Facebook messenger).