Image from 911 Philippines’ Facebook page - Telecom announced it will charge P5 plus regular voice charges for 911 calls
- Gov’t suggested the increase in costs to dissuade prank callers
- Company also announced that is all set to accommodate the gov’t’s 911 and 8888 hotlines
MANILA, Philippines – With the government set to roll out its emergency and complaints hotline on August 1, Globe Telecom announced it will be adding P5 on top of regular voice charges for callers who use 911.
According to General Counsel Froilan Castelo, the extra price was suggested by the government as a way of dissuading would-be prank callers from messing with the system.
“We would also like to inform our customers that those calling the hotlines will incur regular voice charges plus an additional P5 per call for those calling the 911 hotline,” he told GMA News.
Castelo added that Globe is all set to support the 911 and 8888 hotlines.
“We are also expediting migration of our system to immediately enable transmission of SMS or text messages thru 8888 and we are confident that we will be able to achieve this target within the timeframe of 30-45 days given to us by the government,” he said. “As a telecommunications provider, Globe recognizes the importance of such communication tool for the government to effectively carry out its initiatives for the benefit of the public.”
For his part, National Telecommunications Commisstion (NTC) Deputy Commissioner Edgardo Cabarios said they are eventually looking to make the emergency calls free of charge as per President Rodrigo Duterte’s original directive.
“I think there is a directive by the President to make it free of charge. All stakeholders will discuss it. Telcos will be the one to announce,” he said.
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