Don’t bother looking for Red Mobile SIM or load cards; PLDT has ordered a stop to the sale of the aforementioned goods which will supposedly ease the migration of existing Red users to Smart, whose total count to date is at 900K subscribers.

Reports from dealers mention that as early as April, Smart representatives have been systematically pulling out unsold Red Mobile products (note though, that load retailers are still authorized to sell to Red Mobile subscribers).

Some dealers however, have raised the problem of Red Mobile not being included in the menu of the new Smart retail SIM’s which is a glaring hurdle for the sale of Red Mobile load in the market.

Ramon Isberto, Smart Public Affairs Head:

“The existing (Red subscribers) SIM can still be used but we’re not adding (subscribers)… They are migrated to Smart.”

Back Story!

Red Mobile is being killed as an NTC condition to the purchase of Digitel by PLDT, or more specifically: CURE, which runs Red Mobile, will be sold to Smart (subscriber base, fixed assets, etc.) and Smart will then give up CURE by ceding its congressional franchise, (3G) frequencies and other related permits.

The NTC will then hold an auction for the 3G frequency of CURE (to which it is hoped that San Miguel will win).

Troll: Again, for the love of Justin Beeber, does anyone know anyone who is on Red Mobile? To this date, the Troll does not understand why PLDT launched Red – was it a bid to insert a disruptive player in the market or was Red Mobile designed to target a specific segment, like Touch Mobile and Talk n Text? To this day, the Troll believes that Red Mobile is just one big money hole to which PLDT burned b/millions.