MANILA, Philippines - Globe Telecom has reduced its international voice and text rates to major foreign destinations by as much as 87 percent.
Company officials said the move is aimed at giving local residents a chance to spend more talk time with their families and friends abroad.
Globe head for overseas Filipino communities (OFC) Alan Supnet explained that the company is answering the call of its OFC clients to keep in touch with their loved ones especially during the holiday season by making communications highly affordable to its subscribers.
From the regular call rate of 40 cents or roughly P20 per minute for overseas calls, the amount was brought down to as low as P2.50 to selected countries.
Aside from the more affordable call rates, Globe also brought down its international SMS or text messaging rates to P5 per ISMS to top 50 destinations, which can be used by all Globe postpaid and prepaid and TM subscribers. There is also no need to register, use access codes, or special cards to avail of the special ISMS rate.
Regular Globe ISMS postpaid rate is P10 while regular Globe and TM prepaid rates are both at P15.
Supnet said Globe has designed various product and service offerings that would make it easier for OFW families to maintain strong communication ties with each other.
Using Globe tipIDD card, customers can call the US, Hong Kong and Canada for only P2.50 per minute; Singapore, China, Malaysia, South Korea, and Taiwan for P5 per minute; Australia, Thailand, Italy, UK and Japan for P8 per minute; and Saudi Arabia and UAE for P10 per minute. The card can be used in Globe postpaid, prepaid, and TM mobile phones as well as in Globe postpaid and prepaid landlines.
Another product is the Globe IDD Suki load which can be bought from Globe autoload retailers. A P20 load is already equivalent to a five-minute call to the US, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan while a P30 load provides three-minute calls to Saudi Arabia , UAE and Kuwait .
“Versus other IDD products in the market, IDD Suki is the simplest way to make international calls since it allows customers to make direct calls without the need to dial prefixes, prepaid call card numbers or personal identification numbers,” Supnet pointed out.
For those who are more budget conscious and who do not need to stay long on the phone, Globe has the IDD Sakto Calls which charges on a per second basis.
IDD Sakto Calls offers 15 centavos per second IDD to 15 destinations including Australia, Canada, China, Hawaii, Hong Kong, Kuwait, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, UK, US and Equatorial Guinea and 30 centavos per second to the rest of the world using the 12800 prefix.
“With its slew of international services, Globe is truly the worldwidest network in the Philippines today,” Supnet said.