BayanTel to offer VoIP services to households

BayanTel, one of the leading providers of affordable and reliable voice and data services in the country, is now at the forefront of offering voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) services to households and extending the numerous benefits of this new technology to the regular consumer.

Sky Internet VoIP is the first carrier-grade VoIP service that is offered in the market targeting households as end users by an enfranchised telecommunications provider. The new service runs on the new technology of VoIP that transmits telephone calls over a data network like the Internet instead of the traditional voice network.

For several years now, VoIP has utilized at the enterprise level by companies with data networks that can also carry voice applications between locations or through the Internet for calls made to international destinations. BayanTel was also the first to launch a voice over broadband (VOB) application for corporate customers which allows voice to be transmitted via broadband DSL lines.

BayanTel vice president for product development Joevel Rivera said the company believes the market is already ripe for a reliable and accessible VoIP service considering the attention that the technology has been getting since the NTC issued guidelines on this new technology.

"Internet access has grown leaps and bounds and broadband DSL subscribers in particular have seen triple digit growth in the last few years. BayanTel has been one of the more aggressive players in providing DSL services to the residential market. With wider Internet penetration, there is greater opportunity to deliver IP-based services to the households and VoIP is certainly one of the most appealing and functional applications that we believe would benefit most consumers," Rivera said.

According to Rivera, the most compelling feature about VoIP is savings on long distance charges. As an example, calls made via Sky Internet VoIP to more than 70 destination countries like the US, Canada, and other Southeast Asian countries would cost as low as six US cents a minute, or 85 percent cheaper than standard IDD rates.

And depending on the plan availed, users are given free IDD minutes. For the P499 plan a month, users get 100 free IDD minutes and for the P999 plan a month, users get 300 free IDD minutes. Under a normal telephone subscription, such user would have paid more than P6,700 on IDD charges alone. With Sky Internet VoIP, it is free, giving tremendous savings to the user, he said.

Rivera also believes Sky Internet VoIP has an advantage over other VoIP services in the market today because of its functionality. "Unlike other earlier versions of VoIP, our service is easy to use as it works like any other telephone line. Sky Internet VoIP allows calls to be made through regular telephone units that are connected to a device called the analogue telephone adaptor (ATA). Our ATA is made by Cisco and is also a firewall and a broadband router. This ATA is ‘free’ as part of the packages," he pointed out.

Sky Internet also offers lower national domestic calls at lower rates, unlimited free local calls and special phone features such as caller ID and call waiting, and a security personal information number (PIN) that is common in ordinary telephone services.

"The future of communications is really on the Internet. BayanTel is committed to develop new and applicable technologies that harness the benefits of the Internet that enhances our cost efficiency while delivering considerable value for money to consumers," the Bayantel official stressed.

Rivera added that BayanTel has now completed the Metro Manila portion of its next generation network (NGN) that would allow the company to support multiple applications including Internet protocol (IP). The second phase which covers all the major nodes of BayanTel nationwide will be ready by next month. The NGN aims to optimize the nationwide network of BayanTel and will allow seamless deployment of Sky Internet VoIP anywhere in the country.

BayanTel also recently announced plans to roll out a wireless broadband service and just recently launched a WiFi service in partnership with Airborne Access.

As of June 2005, the company announced it has achieved 18 consecutive months of business growth since 2004. Net revenues grew by nine percent at P2.9 billion as of June 2005 compared to P2.66 billion during the same period last year. This was on the back of a 17-percent hike in data services during the comparative period, with strong growth coming from International private lines, frame relay and IP-VPN services.

DSL revenues also posted a 96-percent increase at P130 million compared to P66 million in the first half of 2004. BayanTel also posted a 19-percent growth in EBITDA (earnings before income tax, depreciation and amortization), a key financial metric for the company, at P1.30 billion compared to P1.09 billion during the same period in 2004.