Filipinos sent about 500 million text messages each day in 2006, twice the daily rate in 2005, the National Telecommunications Commission said Tuesday.
Edgardo Cabarios, director of the NTC’s common carrier and authorization division, attributed the doubling of sent messages to promotional offers from mobile phone service providers such as unlimited text, voice call discounts and the rising number of subscribers.
NTC data showed that the country’s mobile phone subscriber base expanded by 23 percent to 42.87 million last year from 34.8 million in 2005.
Cabarios said the NTC expects subscriber growth to continue.
Smart Communications Inc. reported 17.2 million subscribers; Globe Telecom, 16.7 million; Pilipino Telephone Corp. 6.97 million and Digital Telecommunications Philippines Inc. (Digitel), 2 million.
Among the new smaller companies, Next Mobile has 22,411 subscribers; Extelcom, 10,374; and Connectivity Unlimited Resources Enterprise (CURE), 1,000.
Cabarios added that strong economic growth and remittances from overseas Filipino workers (OFW) boosted consumer spending and the acquisition of mobile phone handsets.
The number of landline subscribers also rose by 7 percent to 3.63 million last year from 3.37 million in 2005.
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