GlobeQUEST offers PC-based prepaid calling service

GlobeQUEST has come up with the country’s first PC-based VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) service that utilizes traditional telephone prepaid cards to allow corporate and individual users to save as much as 78 percent in international calls.

Dubbed as GlobeQUEST Web Phone, the prepaid calling service is available through any Internet-connected PC, preferably those with broadband connection. 

It can be used to call a landline and mobile phone anywhere in the country and abroad at very low rates.

For instance, calls to the top 10 most popular foreign destinations, namely, Australia, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and United States, are merely charged P4.50 or $0.086 per minute as compared to the traditional IDD rate of $0.40.

Thus, companies which require constant communication with business associates in these countries can realize substantial savings if they use GlobeQUEST Web Phone, said Jesus Romero, GlobeQUEST head.

GlobeQUEST Web Phone is also targeted at busy professionals who often have to work and make calls while mobile.

With their Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) enabled laptops or PDAs (personal digital assistants), executives, sales persons, journalists and other field workers can easily make a call via the Internet via hundreds of GlobeQUEST Wireless Internet Zone (WiZ) hot spots scattered in strategic locations nationwide.

Reaching a Globe Handy-phone subscriber through an Internet-connected laptop or PDA only costs P4.50 per minute as compared to P6.50 per minute for mobile-originating calls.

GlobeQUEST Web Phone is being offered initially in tandem with the Globe1 prepaid card which can be purchased from any Globelines Payments and Services Center and from prepaid card retail outlets nationwide.

Globe1 was designed as the first universal call card, to be used from any Globelines, Globe Handyphone or TM phone. However, the lowest IDD rates are currently applicable only to calls from Globelines. 

Thus, although the product has been growing in popularity, interested users in areas not covered by Globelines cannot avail themselves of the lowest IDD rates, thus prompting the company to look for other ways to offer the service to a wider segment of the population.

"We do not expect GlobeQUEST Web Phone to totally replace regular phones in making IDD calls. However, there are a number of factors that may make people turn to it," Romero said. 

"First, GlobeQUEST Web Phone offers cheaper rates than regular landline and mobile phones; second, it is available in prepaid, thus, more attractive to budget-conscious users; third, people are spending more time on the Internet, thus, they may want to place calls from their PCs; and lastly, with the growing number of road warriors, being able to work and make calls via their laptop and PDAs would be a plus factor," Romero added.

While other popular Web-based programs provide free PC-to-PC international calls, he said they are only available to subscribers who must be logged in at the same time. 

Romero said that although these Web-based programs offer a lower rate of around $0.02 to $0.03 per minute for calls to the US from the Philippines as compared to the GlobeQUEST Web Phone rate of $0.08, they are only available via credit card and for a minimum load of around $10.

"Not everyone has a credit card and is willing to buy $10 worth of credit for interna-tional calls. This is where we come in. GlobeQUEST Web Phone offers convenience and accessibility, not to mention the cheapest IDD rates in the country today," he said.