More and more Filipinos are relying on wireless “landline” and wireless internet services, as the Philippines’ largest telcos compete to offer “unlimited” or “bulk-priced” rates for internet and “landline” services.

This is already good news to the Philippines where there are over 70 million mobile phone users, out of a population of roughly 90 million.

Sun Cellular, the country’s third largest telco, started the shift to “bulk pricing” on cellular mobile telephone services with its “Call and Text Unlimited” brand.

Thanks to Sun Cellular, “unlimited” mobile services became a reality in the Philippines, debunking the obviously false claims that it would lead to permanent network congestion and degradation of the quality of services.

Smart Communications and Globe Telecom, who a few years ago derided Sun Cellular’s “unlimited” services, now offer “Smart Talk” and “Super Unlimited”, respectively. But their offers remain more expensive than Sun Cellular’s and appear to be mere promos which they can remove from the market at a whim.

Competition is heating up among the three mobile service providers, not just in unlimited mobile phone services but also for unlimited mobile broadband in terms of both cost and quality.

Sun Cellular quietly rolled out its 3G internet coverage in Metro Manila and is now aggressively marketing unlimited mobile broadband internet for as low as P649 {$13.70} a month. Its limited coverage – its 3G service is available only in Metro Manila – is both a strength and a weakness: They can get as many subscribers in the national capital region, which is relatively the richest among all regions. Meanwhile, users who are generally satisfied with their service cannot take their dongles beyond the metropolis.

SmartBro, the mobile broadband brand of Smart Communications, upped the ante last month by giving out free USB dongles to university and college students in Manila. Globe, meanwhile, repackaged its prepaid offerings once again, calling its prepaid mobile phone and mobile broadband Tattoo.

The pricing? SmartBro also has unlimited mobile broadband for P1,500 ($31.70) a month. Globe Tattoo has no such offering.

Compared to Sun Cellular, the common advantage of SmartBro and Globe Tattoo is their more extensive network coverage.

Prepaid services are widely available for P5.00 ($0.11) per 15 minutes mobile internet use for Globe, and P10.00 ($0.22) for 30 minutes for Sun Cellular and Smart

It is in the competition among wireless landline offerings where their oligopolistic practices are reappearing.

Landline leader PLDT is reportedly blocking calls emanating from Globe’s SuperDuo and Duo., its wireless offerings that make use of the same GSM-powered cellular mobile telephone system. Sun’s SunTel Wireless Landline subscribers also report similar incidents of not being able to make calls to PLDT landline numbers.

Bayan Telecommunications was the first to offer wireless landline services and it continues to market its services for as low as P499 ($10.50) a month for contract or postpaid subscribers. It took a long time before its subscribers could easily and quickly call PLDT landlines.

Globe’s SuperDuo and Duo wireless landline services are bundled with mobile phone subscriptions. Once you subscribe, Globe assigns a landline number to you, on top of your mobile phone number. This means convenience and savings for subscribers – no need to carry a mobile phone and wireless landline. Both types of calls can be made using one single SIM card. Globe postpaid subscribers pay an extra P499 monthly charge for this service.

Sun offers exactly the same service — wireless landline bundled with unlimited intra-network mobile calls using one SIM card — but a cheaper add-on price of P249 a month. At this price, SunTel is the lowest bulk-priced landline service in Metro Manila today.

The lowering of prices and rates for mobile phone services, mobile broadband internet and wireless landline is good for consumers and the public in general. It empowers consumers and brings down the cost of doing business. It helps families get in touch with relatives working or living abroad or in the provinces at a far cheaper cost and sometimes free  if they use Skype or the internet call functions of Yahoo! Messenger.

Whether the prices could be brought down further can only be answered by government checks on the pricing practices. Government should probe obvious and possible oligopolistic practices by the biggest telcos, investigate arbitrarily (over-)priced services and monitor call/internet quality. Government should also keep abreast of developments in GSM technology which year after year has made possible cheaper rates, more extensive services and wider coverage.

The current call and text rates via mobile phones have remained high and prohibitive – at least P30 ($0.63) for a 10-minute call – and these rates have remained unchanged for a number of years despite the steady forward march of technology with newer GSM technologies allowing telcos to handle more calls and text and in larger coverage areas compared to when these rates were first set.

Unfortunately, Filipinos have to live with a spineless National Telecommunication Commission, the supposed industry regulator which appears to be content receiving millions of pesos in licensing and other fees from the telcos and has been widely viewed as remiss in protecting consumers from their bad practices.

Perhaps the situation will change under the next administration, but that will entail zealous action by consumers who should demand higher-quality services, lower costs and protection from the bad practices associated with oligopolies.