It is not often that Philippines Inc has much to teach other parts of the world. But the country's mobile operators are shrugging off afflictions that have eroded many international carriers' profits namely massive acquisition and retention costs.

The country's two biggest operators sell phone credit over the air, dispensing with scratch cards and eliminating print and distribution costs. They also sell this credit at just a few pesos at a time akin to selling single cigarettes which opens the doors to a mass of price-sensitive customers. These marginal customers, with their plain vanilla 10-minute calls, can prove more profitable than subscribers with more commonly used flat-rate plans.