PLDT expands global presence

HONG KONG — Telecommunications leader Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT), through subsidiary PLDT Global, is expanding its worldwide presence, as it identified several countries where it will be offering its mobile phone services, among others.

PLDT Global president Al Panlilio said that aside from Hong Kong, Singapore and Italy where the PLDT group already has mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) arrangements, the group is in talks with operators in other countries on the possibility of offering PLDT services in these countries.

PLDT Global is the international sales and marketing arm of the PLDT Group.

An MVNO is a company that provides mobile phone service in another country but does not have its own radio frequency allocation, nor does it have all of the infrastructure required to provide mobile telephone service in the foreign country. Instead, MVNOs have business arrangements with traditional mobile operators to buy minutes of use for sale to their own customers or utilize the foreign operator’s infrastructure to offer the MVNOs own brand or services under a profit-sharing agreement.

The arrangement allows PLDT to expand its presence and offer its mobile services worldwide without the accompanying huge investments.

Since MVNO arrangements are not recognized in the Middle East, Panlilio disclosed that they are looking at another framework that will allow PLDT and Smart Communications to offer their services mostly to Filipinos in this part of the world.

Other countries where PLDT Global plans to set up either MVNO or other arrangements with foreign telecommunications operators are Japan where PLDT shareholder NTT DoComo and NTT Communications are the biggest telco service providers, other countries in Europe like the United Kingdom and Spain, Taiwan and Macau, and possibly the United States.

Panlilio explained that PLDT’s infrastructure and operations in Italy can be utilized to access other countries in Europe like the UK and Spain by sharing infrastructure.

Meanwhile, PLDT is looking more at dealership agreements for Taiwan and Macau.

PLDT Global projects its revenues next year to grow to $54 million from $38 to $40 million this year, the growth largely attributable to the Italy operations. Panlilio emphasized that they have not felt a slowdown in business even with the global economic and financial crisis but their forecasts for next year “are more tempered.”

Of the company’s total revenues, around 75 percent is derived from its MVNO arrangements, whether purely MVNO or semblance of MVNO, while around 14 percent is from mobile load dealerships.

The company’s capital expenditure budget meanwhile is seen increasing to $5 million next year from around $3 million this year. According to Panlilio, the increase is due to the investments that will be made in setting up the Middle East operations as well as other possible investments in Asia.

Earlier, PLDT Global opened a shop in the Middle East, offering Smart’s remittance service, using the mobile-phone based financial services platform of the cellular firm.