Calm yourselves, people

We’ve been seeing a lot of Telstra related posts and shares on our Facebook walls recently. If you didn’t know, Telstra, one of the biggest telcos in Australia, is planning to enter the PH market and is partnering with food and beverage San Miguel. Because of this (and the sorry state of PH internet) many people are calling Telstra the savior of PH internet, and have been spreading all manner of things about the Australian company. While we’re as excited as you are at the prospect of a new player entering the market, there are some things that you think you know about the Australian telco that you’re dead wrong about:

1. They already have a PH HQ

One of the things that has been spreading around Facebook lately is the image above.

That’s the image of the supposed PH headquarters of Telstra, which indicates that they’ve already set up shop here. Sorry to break it to you guys, but that’s not their PH HQ. That’s actually the PH contact center of Telstra that’s there to service customers in other countries, which incidentally, is jointly operated by Teletech. It’s their third contact center – with their first one being in Manila, opened back in 2013 with the second one opened in Cebu back in 2014.

Aside from the people working with Teletech, Telstra has no other employees in the PH for now. How do we know? Well, we asked them:



2. The deal with San Miguel is done

One thing that many people do not understand is that Telstra’s deal with San Miguel isn’t finished yet. No announcement from either company of the deal being finalized as of yet, and believe us, you would have heard it from us by now if there has been a deal. In fact, even the CEO of Telstra says that they’re still working on the deal up until now. Don’t believe us? Here’s an actual quote from the company’s official Facebook account:

We note recent speculation concerning Telstra considering an investment in a wireless joint venture in the Philippines with San Miguel Corporation and that financing is being sought in relation to that joint venture. We are in discussions in relation to these matters. However, no agreements have been reached in relation to these matters and there is no certainty that this will occur.

Here’s another quote from the CEO of Telstra himself:

Notice his choice of words: were we to complete a deal. That means talk is still ongoing and nothing is set in stone as of yet. Since no money has been released to develop the business as of yet, there’s no money yet to hire local talent, which also negates the need for an actual HQ.

3. Telstra will offer unlimited internet at speeds you wouldn’t believe

This is a big one. According to rumors, Telstra is planning to launch unlimited plans in the PH with speeds of up to infinity mbps, because reasons. The speed is irrelevant – all that’s important is that Telstra is deliverig fast, uncapped internet directly to your phones.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but we looked around in Telstra’s website in Australia. Here’s what we found:

If you can’t see that, let us spell it out for you: all of the plans that Tesltra provides in Australia have data caps. Some of them are more generous than what we have here, but all have caps. None are unlimited. And while we can’t say anything about their plans in the PH, they’re sure to follow the footsteps of both Globe and Smart in regards to data capping. We’re really hoping we’re wrong, but it’s more than likely that we’re not.

4. Telstra already has a PH presence in Facebook

Many of you will probably counter our arguments with posts from Telstra’s official PH Facebook pages. That’s fine and dandy, but as of writing, the company has ZERO PH Facebook pages. This, this and this are all bogus pages, and are controlled by god knows who. How do we know? Well, we asked them, via their official, VERIFIED Twitter account:

There is only one legitimate Telstra Facebook page that we know of, and it’s this. Note that this account has been verified by Facebook.

Each time you share a post from any of those pages, you’re advancing the agenda of unknown interests. In short: you’re being used.

5. Telstra’s CEO promises to bring the fastest internet ever to the PH

The above image is a very famous image macro of Telstra’s current CEO, announcing their entry to the PH market.

First off: that’s not a quote of the Telstra CEO. The language is wrong, and feels like it was written by someone who uses English as their second language. Don’t believe us? Google the phrase, and see what you find.

Second and most important bit, that’s not Telstra’s current CEO. That’s David Thodey, Former CEO of Telstra who stepped down Febraury of this year.

This is the current CEO of Telstra, Andy Penn:

We get that people are excited at the prospect of a third mobile player in the PH. Heck, competition is always good, and even the threat of Telstra entering the market may be responsible for the sudden announcment of faster broadband internet from both PLDT and Globe. But let’s not spread fake news and propaganda. Everything you see in the internet isn’t true – a cursory Google search will show you what you need to know about Telstra, and their plans in the PH. If there’s any change, you’re certainly going to hear about it from us.