Telco to charge late payment fees

CEBU, Philippines — Beginning December 1, 2023, Ayala-led Globe Telecoms will implement a late payment fee policy for its subscribers. This initiative aims to promote punctual payment of monthly dues and guarantee uninterrupted access to its services.

Darius Delgado, Vice President and Head of Consumer Mobile Business of Globe announced that a minimal late payment fee of P50 will apply to Mobile Postpaid, Platinum, and Globe AT Home Broadband Postpaid accounts.

The late payment fee is not new but has been part of the Globe subscription agreement with its customers, he said.

Charging a late payment fee is standard practice for services with monthly recurring bills including banks and credit card companies. Telco companies abroad also charge late payment fees.

“For the longest time, Globe had deferred charging the late payment fee even though this is included in the terms and conditions of our postpaid subscription agreement. In today's business environment when other sectors and even the government are charging late payment fees, an example is the LTO, we believe that the telco sector may follow suit. In our case, only postpaid customers who comprise less than five percent of our total mobile customer base will be charged,” explained Delgado.

Those who believe they were charged late payment fees by mistake or have questions on their billing may also contact our customer service team via our official Globe Facebook Messenger channel and Globe will rectify confirmed errors. In case payment due dates fall on a holiday or a weekend, Globe encourages customers to pay their bills before the due date using same-day payment posting channels.

To ensure on-time payments, Globe offers online payment platforms such as the GlobeOne app and GCash to make it more convenient for customers to settle their bills. Customers may also enroll their accounts in auto-debit arrangements through their respective banks.

“Our customers don’t have to worry about the late payment fee if they pay on time. This fee is not meant to burden them but to encourage them to make prompt payments for uninterrupted connectivity services. We want to veer away from the usual practice of disconnecting services over unpaid balances,” added Delgado.

Meanwhile, during the company’s 3rd Quarter 2023 Financial Media Briefing held Monday, November 6, 2023, top officials at  Globe Group led by its president and chief executive officer (CEO) Ernest L. Cu, reported that the company closed the first nine months of 2023 with all-time high consolidated service revenues amounting to P121.1 billion, up a robust three percent from a year ago, despite the extended macroeconomic headwinds faced by the industry.

This performance was mainly fueled by the strong contributions from its mobile, corporate data, and non-telco services, which fully offset the anticipated decline in home broadband.

Globe’s non-telco services, posting an impressive 44 percent yearly growth now account for 3.4 percent of its total consolidated service revenues from 2.4% last year. Additionally, total data revenues for the nine months ending September 30, 2023, stood at P99.6 billion, representing 82 percent revenue contribution to Globe’s topline from 81% in the year earlier.

Mobile business revenues posted a record P83.2 billion as of end-September 2023, up three percent versus the P80.6 billion reported in the same period last year. The stronger revenue performance of the prepaid brands is a testament to the relevance of the Company’s data-centric value-for-money offers, which allows our customers to enjoy world-class network quality and service despite the continued inflationary pressures.

Total mobile revenues comprised 69 percent of the total consolidated service revenues, with the total mobile customer base (post-SIM registration) ending at 54.7 million for the first nine months of the year.

From a product standpoint, mobile data revenues reported P67.0 billion for the first nine months this year, a seven percent hike from P62.5 billion a year ago.

Mobile data traffic soared to 4,360 petabytes as of the end of September of 2023, from 3,365 petabytes reported in the same period of 2022, driven by the continued consumption of high-bandwidth online videos and social media content over smartphones.

Mobile data now accounts for 81 percent of mobile revenues from 78 percent last year.

Conversely, traditional mobile voice and SMS revenues ended at P10.2 billion and P6.0 billion, lower year-on-year by 11 percent and 10 percent, respectively.

Likewise, the home broadband business, on the other hand, generated a total of P19.0 billion in revenues as of the end of September 2023, still down by seven percent from last year’s P20.5 billion. This was primarily caused by the decline in fixed wireless products as partly offset by the positive momentum of postpaid fiber. — (FREEMAN)