The Manila Times Internet Edition | BUSINESS > Telcos cashing in on OFWs

The Manila Times Internet Edition | BUSINESS > Telcos cashing in on OFWs: "Telcos cashing in on OFWs By Darwin G. Amojelar, Reporter TWENTY-FOUR-year-old Rosemarie, a daughter of an overseas Filipino worker (OFW) deployed in Hong Kong, said constant communications with her mother abroad helps ease the pain of distance. “We always call or text my mother to chat and say thank you,” she said. Rosemarie is only one of millions of other Filipinos whose parents or siblings have to work abroad, and whose remittance-fueled spending on calls and text messages has propped up the multibillion-peso telecommunications industry. According to a fresh survey by Nielsen Media Research, communications between OFWs and their loved ones back home is often done once a week by more than a third of respondents. Close to a fifth do that once a month, and another fifth use the phone twice a week. Nielsen sampled 300 remittance recipients, aged 18 years and above, from all socioeconomic classes."