Smart earmarks P700 M for wireless payphones

DUMAGUETE CITY – Smart Communications, Inc. has earmarked some $15 million (P700 million) for the installation of at least 10,000 wireless payphones in various parts of the country.

Dubbed ‘SmarTalk,’ the state-of-the-art payphones were first launched here in view of the city’s fast economic development but relatively low telephone penetration rate, according to Smart president and chief executive officer Napoleon Nazareno.

Moreover, Nazareno noted the receptiveness of the generally young population here to text-based services which the company is offering through the payphones. About 30 percent of the area’s residents are students.

Smart is the first company in the world to deploy such payphones which operate at the 800/1900 radio frequency bands using the popular global system for mobile communications (GSM) technology.

But unlike regular payphones which utilize cables, Nazareno said that SmarTalk will primarily cater to people who require the features of a mobile phone but cannot afford to buy one.

Unlike the ordinary GSM cellular phones, SmarTalk is not only capable of making voice calls but will also later on, be able to send text messages and use other similar applications, he said.

To use the payphone, a customer simply has to purchase a SmarTalk prepaid card which is available in P150, P300 and P500 denominations, and insert it into the slot provided. Call charges will then be deducted from the value of the card.

Current cellular phone airtime rates apply. Thus, a local call costs P12 per minute; national direct distance calls range from P12-P14.70 per minute depending on distance; mobile-to-mobile is P8 per minute; international direct distance is P22.05 or $0.40 per minute; and text messages is P2 for every successful attempt.

Tina Mariano, Smart manager of public access group, explained that since the payphones are neither limited by telephone cable connectivity nor by land-based systems, they can easily be deployed in mobile venues such as shipping vessels and buses.

Already, she said that Smart has signed a contract with WG&A and SuperCat as well as with bus corporations plying northern and southern Luzon.

In the Visayas alone, Smart expects to put up about 2,000 payphones within the year while another 2,300 sites have been identified in Mindanao. The rest will be in Luzon and Metro Manila.

"We will expand depending on market demand. Although we expect revenues from this, we are more concerned on how we could provide telephone services to the people who need them," she said.

Mariano said that Smartalk will also soon become interoperable with those of its mother company, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT).

Aside from the payphones, Smart will also introduce next month its public calling offices (PCOs) which will utilize satellite technology.

Mariano is optimistic that through Aces Corp., another PLDT subsidiary, which will become operational next month, Smart will have a ready infrastructure that will allow it to go to remote areas.

Aside from the current existence of 1,000 PCOs, Smart plans to add 1,600 more by next year, she said.