San Miguel assumes control of BellTel

MANILA, Philippines - Food-to-power conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC) has taken control of Bell Telecommunications Philippines Inc. (BellTel) through the purchase of new shares in three local firms which together own 100 percent of the full-service telecoms service provider.

In its disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, SMC said its wholly-owned unit Vega Telecom Inc. has acquired the shares of Two Cassandra-CCI Conglomerates Inc., Perchpoint Holdings Corp. and Power Smart Capital Ltd., which collectively own BellTel.

“Through such subscriptions, Vega shall own up to 75 percent of the outstanding capital stock of the said corporations,” SMC chief finance officer Ferdinand Constantino said.

Constantino did not disclose how much Vega acquired the new shares for.

Two Cassandra-CCI once owned a minimal stake in Liberty Telecoms which was also bought by SMC along with partner Qatar Telecoms Inc. last year.

SMC has been moving away from its traditional food and drinks businesses and into power, mining, telecommunications, oil refining and infrastructure to fuel faster profit growth.

The acquisition of BellTel would allow Liberty Telecoms to expand its scope of services. Four years after suspending its operations due to dwindling capital, Liberty revived its business under new owners – SMC and Qatar Telecom – with the launch early this year of its broadband service under the brand Wi-Tribe.

Liberty is targeting to close the year with a 70,000 subscriber base. 

BellTel is authorized to provide the full range of services throughout the Philippines, giving it access to all the central business districts (CBD) where 70 percent of the country’s commerce is transacted and special economic zones (SEZs) established under the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA).

With its scope of licenses to include local exchange carrier (LEC), international gateway facility (IGF), inter exchange carrier (IXC), very small aperture terminal (VSAT) and Internet service provider (ISP), the company offers an integrated package of services including local and long distance telephone services, high speed data connectivity, Internet services, cable TV and videoconferencing.

BellTel pioneered in the deployment of point-to-multipoint fixed wireless access technologies delivering multiple product offerings. BellTel also rolled out fiber-to-the-curb in the Makati central business district and entered into strategic alliances with underutilized telecom infrastructures (HFC, fiber optic) thus giving it multiplicity of cost-effective last mile options for rapid service deployment.

The company operates a domestic C-band satellite hub providing connectivity for customers in remote sites not yet covered by its wireless networks. BellTel’s MPLS ready backbone supports multiple services and protocols thus enabling provision of services to customers using legacy networks and migration of customer networks towards IP.

BellTel’s frequencies are for fixed wireless network use or for wireless local loop service, similar to Bayan’s Wireless Landline offering and Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co.’s Landline Plus service.

From fixed wireless network use, BellTel wanted these frequencies to be utilized for cellular mobile use. For this purpose, BellTel revised its application and sought for a provisional authority to operate a mobile phone network. The NTC approved BellTel’s request and issued a cellular permit in October 2007.