Globe, Smart to comply order to extend prepaid load P300 and above to one year

January 5, 2018

The country’s two main telecommunication companies said they will comply with the government’s order to extend the validity period of mobile prepaid load to one year.

Froilan Castelo, general counsel of Globe, said all prepaid load with denomination of P300 and above will carry one year expiration period from the current 120 days.

The validity period of prepaid load with denomination of P1 to below P300 expires between three days and 75 days.

Ramon Isberto, spokesperson of Smart, said his company will abide with the new circular of the government.

“In particular, Smart, TNT and Sun prepaid loads worth P300 and above shall moving forward have a one-year validity, regardless of the validity period printed on the physical cards already out in the market,”Isberto said.

DICT OIC Eliseo  Rio Jr. said the 6-month period is only a time limit where the telcos can be penalized if they have not complied by then.

“We expect the two telcos to really compete by racing to comply, because the winner can attract the subscribers of the other telco. With this, we expect their compliance earlier than the deadline. This will show that there is real competition on their part,” Rio said.

At end-December 2016, there were around 130 million mobile phone users in the country.

The new memorandum circular, extending the validity of prepaid load took effect on January 5.  DMS