People protesting the economic crisis celebrate after storming the Prime Minister's office in Colombo, Sri Lanka on July 13, 2022. Chamila Karinarathne, EPA-EFE
MANILA — Globe Telecom is offering free calls, texts, and mobile internet data to Filipinos in Sri Lanka affected by tensions brought by an economic crisis there.
In a statement Sunday, the telco said Filipinos in Sri Lanka using its roaming services can reach their loved ones in the Philippines through free 15 minutes of calls, 15 texts, and 1 gigabyte of data valid for 7 days.
“We are closely monitoring the events unfolding in Sri Lanka and are providing free connectivity to Filipinos there to ensure they are able to reach their families and friends during this challenging time,” said Coco Domingo, Globe's vice president for Postpaid and International Business.
Customers will be able to avail of this free service by latching on to Globe’s partners Hutchison and Dialog, the telco said.
Subscribers need not register as the free service will be automatically seeded to them. A confirmation message will be sent to customers advising them that the free roaming offer is ready for use.
To make calls, Globe customers can dial “+”, along with country code, area code, and telephone or mobile number. The same can be used for text messages.
To use the free 1GB data allocation, customers may turn on mobile data and data roaming on the phone’s settings, and set the network connection to 3G or LTE.
"Postpaid customers are encouraged to only turn on their mobile data and data roaming once they have received the activation message," the telco said.
The Department of Foreign Affairs has raised Alert Level 2 for Filipinos in Sri Lanka, which means new workers are prohibited from being deployed there.
About 500 Filipinos live and work in Sri Lanka.
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