PLDT to launch ‘multiplay’ businesses this year

Telecommunications giant Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) is launching three new businesses that will put the company at the forefront of “multiplay” or the provision of different services such as voice video, and data using either the fixed or wireless network, or both.

These new services include mobile television, direct-to-home satellite television, and Internet Protocol television which, according to initial company plans, will be launched within the year,

PLDT president and CEO Napoleon Nazareno said they are still waiting for the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to issue the new rules on digital broadcasting that will lay the framework for standards and policy concerning mobile television.

PLDT, through its subsidiary Mediaquest, has invested an initial P1.4 billion into mobile tv. At present, subscribers of PLDT wireless subsidiary Smart Communications are accessing mobile tv services for free on a trial basis. The commercial launch of the mobile tv service through Mediaquest-owned Mediascape and Nation Broadcasting Corp. will have to await the issuance of the NTC rules expected over the next few months.

There is still an ongoing debate on whether mobile tv can be considered part of broadcasting or telecommunications. If it is categorized by the NTC as a broadcasting service, then only entities that have broadcasting franchises, such as NBC, can offer it ‑ whether alone or in partnership with a telecommunications company.

Smart Communications chief wireless adviser Orlando Vea, also president of Mediascape, said no new investment is necessary to commercially launch the mobile tv service

Meanwhile, PLDT, also through Mediascape, is launching in the second or third quarter this year  its direct-to-home satellite tv service, investing an initial P700 million into the project.

Vea said the company is currently setting up the network, which will include the head-end, downlinks and uplinks. The head-end station, now located in Angeles City, will be transferred to Metro Manila.

PLDT’s DTH business will put it directly in competition with Dream Broadcasting, currently the country’s only DTH service provider, as well as with the cable tv industry.

It was also learned that PLDT, this time through subsidiary Smart Broadband Inc. (SBI), also plans to launch within the year its Internet Protocol television or IPTV service.

IPTV is a digital tv service which delivers television content to the viewer, not through traditional broadcast and cable formats, but through the technologies used for computer networks such as IP.

For residential users, IPTV is often provided in conjunction with video on demand and may be bundled with Internet services such as Web access and VoIP (Voice over IP).