SMS Prices in Asia - Who's the cheapest

Some interesting developments in the Philippines with a public consultation hearings conducted by a Congressional committee and the industry's regulatory body, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC). Seems there is strong support to roll back SMS prices to free or near free, to help those challenged in the economic downturn,

According to some opinions " "Mobile operators, which have been raking in billions of pesos in revenues as the Philippines rose to become the self-proclaimed text messaging capital of the world"

SMS rates in the Philippines cost about of one peso (US$0.2) for sending a text message.
But many operators offer packages such as Lahat ("All") Text which can bring the price of text messages to as low 35 centavos (US$0.008)."

A statement attributed to Globe Telecom's legal counsel Rodolfo Salalima said the current rate in the country is "extremely low" when compared to India's 61 centavos (US$0.013), Malaysia's 67 centavos (US$0.015), Indonesia's 1.18 pesos (US$0.026), China's 1.55 pesos (US$0.34), and Hong Kong's 15.91 pesos (US$0.35) per message.

Vietnam and Viettel Continue to Surge, Ringtone Mania

I just got back from trip to Hanoi. The growth and development in Vietnam this year is just stunning.

After decades of being known for its corruption and miserable poverty, Vietnam will soon rocket past Malaysia and Thailand as the growth engine of ASEAN. Some key facts:

• Economic output has doubled in the five years,
• Poverty reduced by half since 1998
• Foreign direct investment is at a higher rate ( per capita )than both India's and China's.
• Intel is building a massive chip factories in southern Vietnam
• Canon is already building the world's-largest laser printer factory
• And as of June 2008, the mobile phone service providers have more than 48 million subscribers.
  

We just finished a research report on the consumption habits for Mobile Application Services such as ringtones, Java Games, wallpaper. A lot of consumers are customizing their cell phones, and we heard more international pop artists ringtones in Saigon than we did in Boston.
A new research report has been created by our team - if you need more information about the mobile services applications in Vietnam: http://www.aprg.com/asp/pub_vietnam_mobile_2008.asp