I joined leaders of the Telco Entrepreneurs Association today in a press conference at Quezon City. We sought to inform the media and the public about a plan of Smart Communications to “fire” thousands of E-Load dealers by the end of this month.

Yes, folks, Smart now wants to get rid of the thousands of dealers who helped make their company No. 1 by bringing “retail” prepaid load to the masses.

Go here for the full statement of TXTPower.

Ninety-nine percent of mobile phone users in the Philippines are prepaid subscribers. Surely, we all have been served by these dealers through their hundreds of thousands of retailers.

Smart should reconsider its so-called regionalization project where these dealers will be eliminated. As a company that prides itself in “corporate social responsibility”, dismissing the dealers leaves a terrible impression to the consumers and the public in general. After cashing in on the vast nationwide network of retailers built from scratch by these dealers starting in 2002, Smart would be terminating them and thereby putting them in harm’s way.