"Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. yesterday said net profit in the first six months of the year rose 13 percent to P19.3 billion year-on-year, as the volume of text messages sent from its wireless networks, Smart and Talk N’ Text, hit 800 million a day.
PLDT president Napoleon Nazareno told a news briefing at PLDT headquarters in Makati City that the company posted the record profit despite a spending squeeze brought about by high inflation and lower actual cost of text messaging.
The country’s largest publicly listed company, with more than $10 billion in market value, reported service revenues of P70.3 billion in the January-June period this year, up 5 percent from a year ago, as it increased the number of its Smart and Talk N’ Text subscribers by 3.2 million this year to bring the total to 33.2 million as of June.
Nazareno said Smart and Talk N’ Text subscribers were sending a combined 800 million text messages a day, with an actual cost of only P0.21 per SMS, because of bucket pricing under various promotional campaigns.
“With a headline rate of P1 per text, this means that four out of five text messages are free,” said PLDT chairman Manuel Pangilinan. He noted that 65 percent of all text messages sent from the Smart and Talk N’ Text networks were under promos in the first half.
Pangilinan said the company offered various promo rates amid the tough economic situation of their subscribers.
Nazareno said due to the rising volume of text messages this year, the company was increasing its capital expenditures to P28.5 billion to expand its cellular and wireless broadband infrastructure. The amount was up by P3.1 billion from the earlier target of P25.4 billion.
Pangilinan said while the first half performance had been solid and sustained despite difficult economic circumstances, “we anticipate stronger head wind in the second half as inflation accelerates and takes it toll on the consumer and on expenses."
Here we can see that text messaging is really part of the company's income. It would be a shame if they made it free. Although i wouldn't really complain. :)
I just hope that there will be no increase in the prices for texting unlike all other expenses.
This just tells us how much texting is part of our daily lives and we should thank the people who offer us these services. 1 peso makes a difference.
SOURCE: http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/?page=business2_aug6_2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
I agree, without texting many people have no other ways of communication because for some people it's the cheapest way to communicate or something like that. 1 peso does make a difference, even though it's small, it's like us, 1 person can make a big difference, so why can't a peso? Think about it..
Well, text messaging really is a main source of income for communications corporation.
And I have to agree that permanent implementation of free text messages will only provide a huge loss for them.
I have to say that text messaging should have rates, even though the masses prefer no payment at all.
PS: Can someone please put the option to turn off the song? It's getting irritating. No offense.
waw. just think of all that money. it's tempting to stop contributing to this already rich companies but we just can't help living without these stuff.
Texting is the main source of income for telecommunications companies. If we all beg for unlimited texts at zero-cost, it would be unfair for the companies. This wrong deed only deprives the companies of their profits and gains. And even if they indeed get some profit, it would only be a small portion because texting became free for everyone.
Post a Comment