Netizens cry foul over telco's SMS outage

Subscribers of dominant telecommunications firm Smart Communications have taken to the Web to air their frustrations following a supposed network outage that prevented users from sending text messages and making calls. GMA News' Twitter account received numerous comments from various users regarding the problem, with some complaining of how their prepaid credits disappeared despite not using them for calls or text messages. The outage had been recorded as early as May 2, but a cursory search on Twitter about the topic reveals that the problem has yet to be solved by the telco. Users complaining of the problem came from as far as Pangasinan and Tiaong, Quezon. Its official Twitter presence, @SMARTCares, have sent reply notices to users asking about the problem, but very few details were revealed through the account. GMA News Online has repeatedly sent requests for a statement to the telco's Twitter account, but has yet to receive feedback regarding the matter. In a text message to GMA News Online, Smart's Public Affairs Head Ramon Isberto said as of today, their systems have already normalized, but did not directly acknowledge the network issue. "We still need to deal with the backlog. Our target is to fix everything in the next 24 hours," he added. Isberto didn't disclose, however, what caused the network backlog and which areas of operation were affected.