Filipino mobile operator Smart Communications, a subsidiary of national fixed line operator PLDT, says the regulator, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), does not hold the authority – under the remit of the Telecommunications Act of 1995 – to impose price caps on the access charges which are levied on short messaging service (SMS) and voice services. According to a report from the local Inquirer newspaper, the operator’s position is the one currently being taken by a number of mobile companies in the country during a public hearing Wednesday to discuss a draft recommendation to cut mobile operators’ access charges. In an interview with the Inquirer, Smart’s head of public affairs Ramon Isberto is quoted as saying: ‘Smart supports the government’s thrust to provide more affordable, better quality telecommunications service. But we respectfully submit that the proposed circulars imposing a cap on interconnection charges are not the means to achieve this goal.’ He went on to point out that under current telecoms law, access and interconnection charges are part of bilateral agreements negotiated by telecommunication companies, and any effort to change this would constitute a violation of the rights of operators.
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The subscriber base of mobile operator Smart Communications has reached 28.5 million as of 1 October. Danilo J. Mojica, head of Smart’s wireless consumer division, attributed the company’s continued subscriber growth to the company’s aggressive expansion and upgrade efforts, according to a Business World report. Smart also credited the surge of subscribers to its various marketing activation efforts. Its target by the end of 2007 is 30 million subscribers. Furthermore, Smart has partnered with another PLDT subsidiary to provide mobile services to online gamers. It is offering the service in collaboration with Level Up!, an online game publisher in the Philippines.
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Filipino mobile operator Smart Communications. has acquired a 30% equity stake in Blue Ocean Wireless (BOW), a Dublin-based telecommunication company, for USD15.9 million. The transaction was made via Smart-owned subsidiary Smart-Connect Holdings PTE Limited, the Manila Bulletin report said. Smart’s move is designed to better serve the growing wireless satellite phone customer base, especially those among seafarers, according to the paper. BOW has a global mobile communication system for the merchant maritime sector. It has delivered the world’s first nautical GSM network that supports full voice and text services, the Bulletin said.
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Smart Communications has agreed to acquire a 30 percent equity stake in Blue Ocean Wireless, Ireland-based provider of GSM communications for the merchant maritime sector, for USD 15.9 million. Smart, via its wholly-owned subsidiary SmartConnect Holdings PTE, will acquire a combination of primary and secondary shares. The acquisition broadens Smart’s service to its existing subscriber base and offers the chance to capture major new subscribers from the world’s 1.2 million seafarers. The purchase also accelerates the roll-out of Blue Ocean’s dedicated product offering for the global merchant maritime sector; and provides GSM network facilities and call/text terminations for Blue Ocean’s global merchant maritime service. Smart has an option to acquire a further 19 percent in Blue Ocean, exercisable within the next three years. Smart Communications is a Philippines-based mobile services provider.
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Manuel Pangilinan, the chairman of Filipino telecoms operator Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT), says the number of people signed up to one of its mobile units – Smart Communications and Pilipino Telephone Corp (Piltel) – topped the 27 million mark at the end of last month. In an interview , Pangilinan said the company added around 1.5 million net new subscribers in the three month period, beating its efforts in January-March, when it recorded 1.3 million new additions. ‘The second quarter was better than the first quarter, partly because of election-related [spending],’ he said.
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TelecomAsia writes…LG has won a contest organized by the GSM Association to produce a low-cost handset for 3G mobile phone networks, a source close to the contest, quoted by a Reuters report, said.
The Reuters report said the winner of the contest, which is expected to receive orders for several millions of these handsets by as much as a dozen mobile carriers, will officially be announced next week at the 3GSM mobile communications trade show in Barcelona.
The handset will cost around $100, breaking through an important price barrier which is expected to boost sales of 3G phones, the report said.
The Reuters report said operators which participated in the selection of the winning handset include Cingular, Globe Telecom, Hutchison 3G, KTF, MTN, Orange, Smart, Telecom Italia, Telefonica, Telenor, T-Mobile and Vodafone.
These operators together have 620 million subscribers, the GSM Association said in a statement in October.
The handset will be available to all members of the GSMA, which is most of the carriers around the world, the report said.
LG, the world’s No. 5 mobile phone maker trailing Nokia , Motorola, Samsung and Sony Ericsson, has been trying to regain its share in the global market after a sluggish year in 2006, the report said.
But it has so far focused on premium models and been careful with low-cost phones.
A spokeswoman for LG Electronics in Seoul declined to comment. A spokesman for GSMA in London, which groups the world’s GSM mobile carriers, also declined to comment.
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Smart baulks at NTC’s proposed cap on SMS, voice charges
