Filipinos Use Free Calls, Data and Texts this Festive Season
- Tuesday, January 15th, 2013
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Voice traffic in the Philippines surged over the Christmas season, according to Globe Telecom, a network provider in the region, because of the growth in the number of promotional offers compared to 2011.
Discount subscriptions for services in the country have tripled since last year, contributing to an average increase in voice calls of 80 per cent on 24, 25, 31 December and 1 January. The highest growth on Globes network, of 90 per cent, was seen on 1 January.
Data usage, including internet surfing on mobile phones or computers, increased by an average of 50 per cent, with peak usage on 25 December. Text traffic, which Globe sees as one of the most popular forms of sending holiday greetings, still grew by an average of 10 per cent.
“Calling gives conversations that unique personal touch compared to texting or sending greetings via Facebook or Twitter,” said Yoly Crisanto, head of corporate communications at Globe. “Sometimes it’s more heartwarming to hear real laughter instead of the popular ‘LOL’. During the recent holiday season, we gave our subscribers more reasons to do actual calls because of our affordable bucket promos.”
Globe says it is on track to complete the first phase of its infrastructure upgrade programme by Q1 2013, which will see the replacement of all of its network equipment nationwide.