Globe Telecom bags a Stevie Award for consumer advocacy campaign against telco monopoly!

Globe Telecom bagged a Stevie Award in the recently concluded 2012 International Business Awards  held last October 15 in Seoul, South Korea.

Globe Telecom recently won a Bronze Stevie Award in the Communications or PR Campaign of the Year - Issues Management category for its entry Rebirth of Telecom Monopoly: Globe Advocacy Campaign against anti-consumer implications of the PLDT-Digitel Merger. Globe is one of only four Philippine companies which competed against organizations from over 30 countries. More details after the jump.

The entry raised the issue of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company's (PLDT) acquisition of Digital Telecommunications Philippines (Digitel) and how the merger would affect the consumers. It can be recalled that Globe raised its opposition to the impact of the merger that "done so without any conditions, the nation will see the rebirth of PLDT's monopoly".

Globe launched a consumer advocacy campaign making its position known that it opposed giving PLDT the free hand to dictate pricing and kill the competitive spirit of the industry as a result of the merger.

According to Globe Corporate Communications Head Yoly Crisanto the award is an affirmation of the Company's advocacy "to help keep the playing field fair in the Philippine telco scene."

"By properly using PR tools, Globe Telecom was successful in raising awareness among critical industry stakeholders about the issue and advocate giving all players equal opportunities to compete in a hypercompetitive industry, proving that free enterprise and regulators can work well together in protecting consumer welfare," Crisanto said.

"Essentially, the real winner here is the Filipino consumer. In the end they are the ones who will benefit from consumer-friendly measures like landline interconnection, lowering of internet service rates and healthy competition for better services, promoted by our advocacy campaign," Crisanto said.

The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) approved PLDT's acquisition of Digitel after PLDT agreed to divest a portion of its frequency, among other conditions that the regulator set. The NTC also mandated the implementation of consumer-friendly measures like the landline interconnection of several provinces between PLDT and Globe, lowering of interconnection rates for voice and SMS, and the formulation of an IP peering policy to lower the cost of internet services.

"We are honored to be recognized for our consumer advocacy program and what we aspired to achieve," Crisanto added.

The International Business Awards touted as the 'Oscar Awards' of the business world, is the premier global business awards program created to honor and generate public recognition for the achievements and positive contributions of organizations and working people worldwide. Each year, The International Business Awards are judged by more than 200 executives around the world. This year's International Business Awards received entries from more than 50 nations and territories. Honorees were determined through two months of preliminary judging and two weeks of final judging.

To view the list of winners of the 2012 International Business Awards please visit http://www.stevieawards.com/pubs/iba/awards/408_2219_21728.cfm.

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