Extended load credits stir mixed reactions

CEBU, Philippines - Due to a recent mandate from the National Telecommunications Company (NTC), telecommunication players have now implemented longer expiration date for prepaid credits or load and this positive news have stirred mixed reactions from concerned consumers as well as retailers in a random interview.

Just this Friday, NTC released consumer-friendly guidelines on extended validity period for prepaid mobile phone credits and according to memorandum circular 03-07-2009, the longer shelf life of prepaid credits will be effective 15 days after NTC published this mandate on national newspaper.

Reports earlier mentioned that new rates and validity period for load of P10 or lower will last for three days, for over P10 to P50 will have 15 days while for over P50 to P100 worth of credits will have 30 days validity.

While for load over P100 to P150, there will be 45 days validity and for over P150 to P250 there will be 60 days whereas for over P250 to P300 will have 75 days and for over P300 credits will have 120 days validity.

Reports also have it that in addition to the extended expiry periods, NTC ordered that unused credits should be added to new credits so cumulative credits would then be the basis for the new validity period.

NTC also required all mobile network providers to give their subscribers call data records upon request free of charge and mobile phone users should be able to check their credit balance for free.

“I think this latest development is value for money and this initiative is a clear indication that the government has in its mind the people’s convenience. But I hope telcos will also come up with per second call rates so that the charging will be lesser,” said Patrick Nee, an engineer who usually spends around P1, 500 to P2, 000 on prepaid load credits a month.

Meanwhile, for Jess Padin, who has a sideline reloading business and spends around P6,000 a month on his load wallet and earns 12 percent profit out of it, thinks that with this new order, consumption of load will not be affected but on the upside will even induce more spending.

“The longer the expiration is, the more aggressive the texters would become because they would not mind texting now,” he said.

On the other hand, retailer Jun T. Yap, chief executive officer and president of Junrex Cellphones and Accessories Inc. sees this latest news to have a minimal effect on their reloading business even if with extended load credits, prepaid subscribers are expected to do lesser re-loads.

“For as long as there’s money on their pockets, there is a minimal effect on us unless if consumers change their way of texting then there will be a major effect on the telco industry. That’s why content providers are making lots of money because people love to text and we Filipinos are very expressive and we express most of our thoughts through text,” said Yap.

He said that right now, telco providers are doing promotions that can help consumers save on their cost incurred with texting and calling in line with these hard economic times.

“Telco’s offer of unlimited promos is their way of helping consumers cope with the crisis so they are still able to communicate and make use of technology at lesser cost. We are used to these promos. Sometimes their promos cause our sales to drop, sometimes it help us increase revenue. First half of the year we lost revenue on handsets by two digits but there was a slight increase in reload sales. People are not buying phones or less but they continue to communicate or use their phone often,” he added further.

He said that right now, there is still a big market for their re-loading business because there are a lot of micro entrepreneurs who continue to earn through this avenue which they have recently made into a program called “Alalay sa Panginabuhi.”

“Our re-loading business is growing because more and more families and entrepreneurs are very much aware of the purpose of our program and its helping them not only to save but also ear,” he said.