PLDT to pursue aggressive global expansion next year

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Long Distance Co. (PLDT) Group is going full blast in further expanding its presence overseas particularly in Europe to cater to Filipinos living and working abroad.

Napoleon Nazareno, PLDT president, said the company would further beef up its presence in the second half of next year after successfully launching operations in the US and Canada a few months ago.

Nazareno said the PLDT Group is looking at the United Kingdom and Italy.

 “Not this year but in the second half of next year we will be very aggressive in moving towards trying our reach outside the country,” he said.

For his part, PLDT Global Corp. president and chief executive officer Alex Caeg said in an interview that the group would momentarily focus on its newly launched operations in the US west coast.

PLDT Global through PLDT US Mobility launched Smart World Mobile last June through partnership T-Mobile to ensure nationwide coverage on the fastest long term evolution (LTE) network in the US.

With the partnership, subscribers in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Honolulu, San Diego, and Las Vegas would be connected to the largest mobile subscriber base of about 70 million subscribers of Smart Communications Inc. and Digitel Mobile Philippines Inc. (Sun Cellular) in the Philippines.

 “The US is a very big market so I think we will need to focus our efforts and resources there,” Caeg said.

He pointed out that any overseas expansion particularly in Europe would have to wait until next year.

Earlier, Caeg disclosed that PLDT Global is also looking at expanding to the East Coast in the US next year where between 65 percent and 70 percent of the 3.4 million Filipinos in the US are based.

PLDT Global has existing mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) deals with operators in eight countries including Macau, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Guam, Taiwan, United Kingdom, US, and Singapore.

PLDT Hong Kong Ltd. has partnered with CSL Hong Kong, PLDT Malaysia Sdn Bhd. with Celcom Axiata Berhad, PLDT Singapore Pte Ltd. with M1 Singapore, PLDT United Kingdom with Vodafone UK and Teleena, and PLDT US Mobility with T-Mobile.

Caeg added that the company is also looking at further expanding its presence in Europe as it is currently looking at Spain.