Telco giant willing to provide free access to hotlines '911' and '8888'

MANILA — Telecommunications provider PLDT and its mobile subsidiary Smart are willing to provide free access to hotlines "911” and "8888" if the government will require them to do so.

Hotline 911 will be the country's national emergency hotline number. Citizen's hotline 8888, on the other hand, will be the public's hotline to air complaints against government officials or services. Both will be operational starting August 1.

"If the government will instruct us to make it free, no problem," Ramon Isberto, head of PLDT/Smart Public Affairs, told the Philippines News Agency in an interview.

Isberto said that for the meantime, calls will be charged based on regular rates, and depending on airtime usage if one will use his/her mobile phone.

He told PNA that PLDT will attend a meeting Thursday afternoon with government agencies such as the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) to tackle issues like how prank calls can be avoided.

He said that charging rates for accessing the hotlines might be brought up in that meeting.

Isberto explained that receiving prank calls is the main problem in having a hotline number, and providing free access to a hotline actually contributes to the increasing prank calls. "People think it's about the money," he lamented. He shared that when the country had the hotline 117 (same function as 911), the access was provided for free in both landlines and mobile phones.

As such, 95 to 97 percent of calls to the hotline 117 were prank calls, according to Isberto.