Senators have been pounding on Globe and SMART for their refusal to fully implement the Per Pulse charging scheme which was finalized by a memorandum by the NTC. Full compliance should have started last December 6, 2009. I did some research and checked what the new charging schemes are and I compared them to the previous rates. If you like short calls then you stand to save money on the long run by using the per pulse charging service. However if you’re the type who talks for a while, then the per minute charging scheme is better.
Here’s a side-by-side comparison of both services. Note that these rates apply only to calls done in the same network (Globe to Globe or SMART to SMART). For SMART, these rates are applicable to all of their products except for Talk N’ Text.
WARNING TO GLOBE POSTPAID SUBSCRIBERS
For Globe, you’re automatically set to Per Pulse charging. You have to call their customer support if you want to retain the per minute service. Here’s where I raise the red flag. If you guys are used to calling long and you don’t revert to your original per minute charging, then you’ll be paying an abnormally high rate of P11.9 for the first two minutes of your call versus just P8. That’s 150% of the original cost! (Someone please correct me if I got it wrong)
SMART Prefix Code for Per Pulse Rate
For SMART, you have to add a prefix code before you dial a number if you want to do the per pulse rate, otherwise the default is per minute. Here’s what you have to input for SMART:
To call per-pulse, the following prefixes must be used, plus the number being called:
Smart Gold and Infinity: *5433
Smart Buddy: *5434
Talk ‘N Text: *2255
Instead of making things easier I think the telcos just complicated things even further, hehe. @_@
Resources:
Official Globe Announcement
Official SMART Announcement
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I believe that the insistence of those legislators to do that actually made things worse. Don’t get me wrong. I believe that those senators were sincere in wanting a better deal for consumers. But what usually, cross-culturally, and historically happens is that the results of such interventions will be more anti-consumer than anyone could anticipate.