PLDT vows to retain Sun Cellular brand, Digitel as separate entity

MANILA, Philippines - Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan reiterated yesterday his group’s commitment to keep the Sun Cellular brand and service on a continuing basis.

He also said PLDT intends to retain Digital Telecommunications Phils. Inc. (Digitel) as a separate entity permanently, debunking speculations that Digitel will eventually be folded into PLDT.

“The bucket-price service will continue indefinitely for as long as the consumer wants it. And in fact we will enhance the service of Sun Cellular by connecting it to the wider PLDT network. So our goal here is not to do away with the Sun service. We will keep it if not enhance it. It’s for the masses,” he emphasized.

PLDT and Gokongwei holding company JG Summit earlier inked an agreement for the former to acquire a 51 percent stake in Digitel. PLDT will also acquire via a tender offer the remaining 49 percent owned by small shareholders.

Pangilinan said they we will not do away with the Sun brand. “I think PLDT is paying a significant price for the brand equity of Sun and for the market share it has. At the same time, there is a collateral commitment to broadband, using the digital infrastructure, at least 95 percent of infrastructure within a period of five years. and to invest significantly in broadband infrastructure to enable to communicate via the Internet,” he noted.

He pointed out that this will involve market segmentation using the Smart brand and the Sun Cellular brand as well. “For Red Mobile, that is being assessed, how to position that vis-a-vis Sun. It’s not really a significant factor. It can be joined with Sun,” he added.

Pangilinan explained that the deal will result in Sun having more permanence in a wider broader infrastructure than what it has got at the moment. “So the third advantage is that we keep forgetting that Digitel has a significant fixed line subscriber base in Central and Northern Luzon, to the extent that it is linked to the PLDT network domestically and internationally.”

“I think it will help Digitel subscribers. The whole philosophy of regulation is to protect consumers and not to protect the rivals. What the government should require PLDT to undertake is to keep the Sun brand and unli services, improve it, broadband the population and help the fixed line subscribers of Digitel. Everybody should compete on that basis,” Pangilinan said.

He also revealed that they will use the other assets of the group to enhance the service, like tollways. “If more consumers can pay the toll for instance through mobile phones, we will open it up to Globe, to everybody. Why will we restrict it to Smart? Globe has got about 26 million subscribers. That is an important component of our payment system in tollways. If Meralco will be an open system, we will open it to them. Same with Maynilad once we adopt the smart meter, it should be open to everybody,” he said.

He stressed that they are not restricting it to themselves “unlike the other group which is restricting our ability to build base stations on their real estate properties.

“We are not allowed to build base stations in their properties. In fact, we’ve been stopped from offering fixed line service in their malls even when there is a clamor from tenants of the mall to get PLDT fixed line service. It’s an open architecture,” he said.

Pangilinan added that they will still get forward with their synergies. “It is not contingent with the acquisition of Digitel. We still have Smart and Talk ‘N Text. In fact, all these efforts, antedates the Digitel investment,” he noted.