RP firm is finalist in GSM awards

Once again the Filipino has proven his competence and technological ingenuity in the global GSM arena. A Philippine company is the lone Asian nominee to be included in the final four of the 2002 GSM Association Awards, which is considered the Oscars in the global GSM industry.

WolfPac Communications Inc., a mobile applications development company based in the Philippines, is a finalist in the Best Wireless Applications Developer Category. The other three finalists in this category are from Ireland and France.

Nominees in the other categories include cellular giants NTT Docomo, Sonera, Ericsson, America Online, Telstra, Telia Denmark, and BT Cellnet.

"Making it to the finals gives us so much pride," said Myla Villanueva, managing director of WolfPac. "Although we are competing with global players, I’m glad the industry leaders appreciate our technical and creative abilities as world-class."

"We must admit that we are the underdogs in this competition," said Albert de la Cruz, president of WolfPac. "But it also shows how creative the Filipinos truly are. Just think, creating applications on text takes a lot of imagination. Furthermore, the volumes required us to create a solid software platform that can deal with tens of thousands of messages per day."

The winners will be announced at the gala of the 2002 GSM Association Awards dinner on Feb. 19 in Cannes, France, during the GSM World Congress. The GSM Association is the world’s leading wireless industry representative body, consisting of more than 600 second and third generation wireless network operators and key manufacturers and suppliers of the wireless industry.

Since WolfPac was founded in 1999, and has quickly grown to be one of the largest wireless applications developers in the Philippines. It develops application solutions for Smart Communications Inc., PilTel Talk and Text and Zed, which include the use of its base SMS platform, research, design and mechanics, third-party branding linkages, coding, quality control, live network and stress tests, launch and post-launch 24 x 7 technical support. WolfPac has also started testing customized applications in various cellular operator networks in Asia and the US.

Villanueva said that the future challenge is to constantly innovate and evolve their applications with tastes and technologies and move so quickly. "We owe it to our partner operators who have been so supportive."