PLDT, Globe ready for surge in calls, texts during holidays

MANILA, Philippines - Rivals Smart Communications Inc. of dominant carrier Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) and Ayala-led Globe Telecom Inc. are ready for a strong surge in voice calls and text messages during the Chirstmas season.

Commissioner Gamaliel Cordoba, of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), has issued Memorandum Order 05-122014 directing companies to ensure uninterrupted telecommunications services during the holiday season.

Cordoba directed public telecom entities to strictly comply with “all unlimited type of service offerings, including internet or broadband access service offerings particularly from Dec. 23 to 26, Dec. 30 and 31, 2014, as well as Jan. 1 and 2, 2015.

“All necessary network adjustments and maintenance should be undertaken to ensure that the networks are ready to accommodate the expected increase in traffic during the holiday season,” he stated in the order.

According to NTC, sufficient operation and maintenance personnel should also be deployed to ensure 99.999 network availability and reliability.

PLDT and Smart spokesperson Ramon Isberto said it has been a standard operating procedure (SOP) for the PLDT Group to review and make adjustments to its network especially during the Christmas season.

“In recent years, the traffic is distributed among many platforms and not only calls and text messages. Now you have calls, text messages, instant messaging such as Viber, internet, and Facebook,” Isberto said.

He pointed out that about a billion text messages per day are exchanged during the Christmas holidays.

“In a way, it is easier to manage now because there are several platforms, and not only calls and text messaging. Before there was around one billion text messages per day, but now we have instant messaging, Viber, Facebook, etc,” he added.

Isberto encouraged subscribers to make their calls and send their messages early during Christmas and New Year.

The PLDT Group has 69 million wireless subscribers as of end-September.

Smart has 25.7 million subscribers, followed by Talk ‘N Text with 27.8 million, and Sun Cellular with 15.5 million.

Yoly Crisanto, senior vice president for corporate communications of Globe, said the company is ready and well prepared to accommodate an expected surge in network traffic during the holiday season.

“While we expect a significant surge in voice, SMS and data usage during the holiday season, especially in the hours leading to Christmas and New Year, we want to assure our customers that the Globe network is capable and well equipped to accommodate any upsurge in network traffic,” Crisanto said.

She pointed out that the growing prevalence of smartphones and tablets and popularity of online social apps are expected to lead to surges in data use.

“Customers’ behavior in sending holiday greetings continues to evolve and they now turn to their smartphones and other mobile devices in sending holiday greetings through various online apps,” she said.

Globe’s subscriber base jumped 17 percent to 42.85 million in the first nine months of the year from 36.52 million in the same period last year.