Telcos ease rates for Pinoy jetsetters

MANILA, Philippines—The country’s major telecom firms have upped the ante for their international operations with new roaming services that aims to expand services for travelling subscribers.

Ayala-led Globe Telecom on Thursday unveiled promos for postpaid subscribers that brings the benefits of “unli” services to users that go overseas.

With the new service dubbed “Globe All-Unli Roam,” postpaid subscribers on roaming can subscribe to any of three unlimited roaming combo services to enjoy “worry-free” mobile phone use while outside the Philippines.

Rizza Maniego-Eala of Globe said in a statement that the new services would give the company the “widest range of roaming offers and promos.”

The new service, which aims to cut roaming costs by as much as 90 percent, will be rolled out first in Thailand on October 11.

Also, Smart Communications said it was in talks with several Asian telecommunications firms regarding LTE (Long Term Evolution) roaming partnerships, which will allow Smart subscribers to surf the Internet at “blazing” speeds abroad.

Discussions are currently ongoing between Smart and Japan’s NTT Docomo, Hong Kong’s Hutchison Telecommunications, South Korea’s KT Corp., and Singapore’s StarHub.

“We are working on LTE roaming arrangements with other leading Asian telcos so Smart subscribers would continue to have the best Internet experience when traveling abroad,” said Alex Caeg of Smart.