Following persistent public protest, the House of Representatives is now retreating from its the plan to impose a five-centavo tax on text messages two weeks after approving it for plenary voting on Sept. 8.

The panel agreed to conduct more hearings and approved the motion of Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez to reconsider the approval of Ilocos Sur Rep. Eric Singson’s House bill 6625. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in SMS Industry ~ No Comments

Right after the news came out, TxtPower led an SMS revolt to force the government to abandon its plans to impose a tax on text messages. They called on all Filipino texters to send the text message, NO TO TEXT TAX! directly to Sec. Peter Favila’s mobile phone number at 09178176110. In less than a day, Malacanang, through Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye, said that it will not pursue a new tax on text messaging.

Posted in SMS Industry ~ 1 Comment

After stopping their unlimited texting service called UNLITXT, TXTPower filed a letter-complaint to NTC (National Telecommunications Commission) via email last December 18 to bring back UNLITXT. Surpisingly yesterday, Globe brought back UNLITXT. But this time, they offered only UNLITXT20. No more UNLITXT40 and UNLITXT80. That is according to 2977 text advisory:

Globe Advisory: Ang Globe Unlitxt All Day 20 ay available na! Enjoy 1 day unlimited texting for only P20. Just text UNLITXT20 to 2870 to register. Til 1/20/08. No free advisory? Reply STOP

Posted in SMS Industry ~ 4 Comments

A friend told me just this morning that Globe’s UNLITXT services has ended. So I went to TxtPower’s website and found out that it is true. According to the website:

For the second time this year, Globe Telecom stopped its unlimited texting service without any public announcement.

At a time when we expect a deluge of Christmas greetings through text, subscribers are now forced to avail of a so-called Sulitxt15 service that gives 100 text messages for P15.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in SMS Industry ~ 2 Comments