Texters' boycott gathers support
More actions vowed towards three demands

TXTPOWER today hailed texters and cellphone users across the
country for taking part in the one-day boycott against the free text
cuts of Globe-Ayala and Smart-PLDT which came after a local court issued
a 20-day temporary restraining order against it.

"We are elated by the widespread support to this movement against
monopolies and for the rights of texters and cellphone users. This gives
us confidence in pursuing this fight until the permanent scrapping of
planned reduction of free text and beyond," said TXTPOWER Spokesperson
Anthony Ian Cruz as he vowed more effective actions before the 20-day
TRO lapses.

"We are proud of the citizens of the world's text messaging capital. Our
protests and boycott won't have met early successes if not for them," he
remarked. "They are a terrific force for asserting consumer rights."

On the drawing board is a grand eye ball (EB), an open forum and a
protest action on or before the Sept 20. A study group on GSM
technology and the telecom industry is now being organized.

The one-day boycott was called by TXTPOWER for its three demands: 1)
that telecom monopolies stop the 66.6 percent cut in free text
allocations by Globe-Ayala and Smart-PLDT; 2) that the NTC's promptly
act on numerous complaints about lousy services by the giant telecom
providers; and 3) that government review its telecommunication
deregulation policy which, they claimed, has become a license for
monopoly firms to dictate on the consumers.

Cruz bared that the boycott was supported by ordinary texters including
members of the Philippine League for Democratic Telecommunications
(PLDTI), National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP), College
Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP), Bagong Alyansang Makabayan
(BAYAN), Cooperative for Journalists and Media Workers (C4J), Cagayan de
Oro Press Club and the Association of Mindanao Journalists (AMJ).

In a radio interview yesterday, DOTC Secretary Pantaleon Alvarez
expressed support to today's boycott. Members of the House
transportation and communications committee as well as the city
governments of Davao and Cebu sided with consumers in calling for
investigations into the issue.