The Court of Appeals in Philippines has ordered all telecom operators to charge their customers on a six-second per pulse billing system as opposed to billing them by the minute. The decision will help provide subscribers a chance at saving on calls that do not complete an entire minute. This ruling supports the National Telecommunications Commission’s (NTC) plan to charge based on a consumer’s actual usage.

According to reports, the Court has said that asking subscribers to prefix a number before dialing, to avail the six-second-per pulse billing option, destroys the mandatory nature of such a billing regime. Telecom operators have been fighting the change claiming that implementation of the per-pulse billing system would require significant technical changes for the companies. To this, the Court said that business and operations must ultimately give way to public interest.

Philippines’ leading wireless services provider, Smart Communications, has reportedly started the public trial of its LTE network in Manila which is expected to last for three months. According to reports, the operator plans to offer selected users access to thirty LTE sites in the capital, by providing them with LTE and HSPA capable dongles.

As per sources, the dongle is expected to offer users speeds of up to 42 Mbps during the trial period which will be till mid-February next year. Further, Smart is the first operator in Philippines to launch LTE services, which is currently limited to the region of Boracay.

Reports reveal that rival operator Globe Telecom has secured a loan amounting to US$ 114.2 million in order to funds its network upgradation, and is currently working towards launching its HSPA+ network.

 

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Globe Telecom, a leading telecommunications company in Philippines, has reportedly entered into a US$ 114 million loan agreement with Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. to fund its capital outlays for the next year, inclusive of network modernization and IT upgrade.

According to reports, this loan agreement which extends over seven years is Globe’s second borrowing this year, following a $ 159 million loan from BDO Unibank Inc. As per sources, the funds from the first loan were used to pre-pay debt as well as fund the capital expenditures for this year.

Further, the company also announced plans of a $790-million network modernization program in the next five years, of which it reportedly plans to spend $640 million in the next two years.

 

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Globe Telecom Inc., a leading telecommunication operator in the Philippines, has reportedly said that the next two to three years may witness a decline in profits as the company focuses on a network upgrade worth $790 million in an attempt to increase capacity and reduce costs.

According to reports, Albert De Larrazabal, CFO, Globe Telecom has said that while they don’t envision a loss, they do expect a decline in the income. He added that they expect to invest around $640 million of the capital expenditure by 2013. He added that the company plans to borrow $590 million next year to help finance the upgrade for which it is in touch with several banks as well as China’s export-import bank to secure loans, export credit and commitments for the issuance of peso-denominated retail bonds. The company reportedly expects to secure as much as $250 million by the second quarter of 2012.

As per sources, Ernest Cu, President, Globe Telecom has said that the network modernization is the company’s most significant investment for the past two decades and should increase capacity as well as save on operating costs and capital expenditure totaling $390 million.

 

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Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. (SingTel) may be planning to raise its stake in Thailand’s Advanced Info Service (AIS) to 23.32 percent from 21.27 percent for about US$ 260 million. According to reports, SingTel has said that that Shin Corp PCL will sell 61 million shares in AIS.  As per sources, Shin Corp owns a 42.6% stake in Advanced Info Services.

Further, reports suggest telecom giant SingTel has said it continues to look out for investment opportunities in Asia and other emerging markets, and that it will focus on strengthening the operating and financial performance of its associates. SingTel also has a stake in other foreign mobile operators such as Bhart Airtel (India), Telkomsel (Indonesia), Pacific Bangladesh telecom, Globe Telecom (Philippines) and Warid Telecom (Pakistan).

As per industry reports, SingTel has over 400 million mobile customers across 25 countries.

 

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The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) has cut down the interconnection charges for short messaging service (SMS) among telecom operators, in an attempt to provide users with more affordable rates for sending text messages. According to reports, the regulatory authority has ordered that the interconnection charge for SMS between two separate telecommunications networks should not exceed $0.003 (15 centavos) per SMS through its Memorandum Circular No. 02-10-2011. Consequently, the new rates will come down by $0.005 (20 centavos) from $0.008 (35 centavos).

As per sources, Gamaliel Cordoba, NTC Commissioner has said that the enactment of the new SMS interconnection rates was in line  was in line with the provisions of the Public Telecommunications Policy Act of the Philippines, which seeks the establishment of fair and reasonable interconnection among public operators and other telecommunications service providers at reasonable and fair cost. He further said that the reduced SMS interconnection rate would translate to lower retail price of text messaging services and make the popular telecommunication services more accessible and affordable to a greater number of people throughout the country. Currently, telecom operators charge a rate of $0.002 (10 centavos) per text message within their network, however the rates for messages sent across different operators increase with the additional cost of the network receiving the text message along with the interconnection charge of $0.008 (35 centavos) per message.

Further, under the same circular, network operators were also ordered to ensure that they have the adequate facilities required to guarantee that 99 percent of the text messages reach their destination within 30 seconds of being sent. In order to achieve this, it is proposed that all networks involved in the interconnection should provide the required links or circuits to effectively handle their SMS traffic.

 

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The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) has extended Bayan Telecommunications permit to operate a cellular mobile telephone system (CMTS) till 2013. However, the Philippine regulatory authority has warned Bayan that it must continue to build out its mobile network over the next two years to avoid ‘stiff’ sanctions.

According to reports, a four-page order signed by the NTC commissioners states that in order to allow Bayan to continue building up its CMTS nationwide, it is recommended that its provisional authority be extended until November 3, 2013; subject further to the condition that should Bayan fail to continue building up its CMTS network within two years from date thereof, the provisional authority shall be deemed cancelled or revoked.

Bayan was granted provisional authority on May 3, 2000 which has been extended twice, up to November 5, 2005 and November 3, 2010. As per sources, Bayan claims they are currently working on a proof of concept with several vendors for LTE in order to utilize its allocated frequencies in the 1800 megahertz band. Bayan reportedly told the NTC on July 28 that it has commenced installing cell sites for CMTS services. To date, it has put up 428 cell sites nationwide and has signed up 178,552 subscribers for the wireless landline service.

According to NTC Director, Edgardo Cabarios, when Bayan was authorized in 2000, Extelcom questioned the authority before the Court of Appeals. During this time, Digitel was authorized to operate a CMTS network and started offering cellular service. Bayan could not offer anything because of a court case.

 

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Southeast Asia’s largest phone company, Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. posted a decline in profits for the first quarter, attributed to lower earnings from regional businesses such as Bharti Airtel in India. The reports of drop in profits were rather unexpected.

The company’s net income slump 2.9 percent to $750 million from $776.42 million in the three months ended June; whereas market observers had predicted a rise in profits to $815.77 million.

In the wake of Bharti Airtel’s lower earnings for six consecutive quarters, in addition to the appreciation in the Singapore dollar against eight major Asian currencies this year, SingTel’s revenues from international markets have greatly slowed down. On the other hand, the Optus unit in Australia has positive news for the company. The Australian unit’s earnings saw an increase buoyed by currency gains and customers won from rivals.

The combined earnings from the company’s international partners that include Bharti in India and Africa, Telkomsel in Indonesia, Advanced Info Service Pcl in Thailand and Globe in the Philippines are worth $388.54, down by 10 percent as compared to last year.

While Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization from Singapore operations slumped by 4 percent to $466.74 million, in the wake of costs for the company’s mioTV service despite revenues increasing by 2 percent.

In contrast, Sydney-based Optus saw 1 percent increase in earnings to reach $568 million; attributed to new mobile customers joining the network.

Apparently, Vodafone Hutchison’s loss is Optus and Telstra Corp’s gain. The former had reported losing 375,000 customers in the six months ended June.

While Telstra, the biggest telephone company in Australia posted earnings for the second half that market observers’ forecasts on the back of new customer net additions in the mobile segment and also, cost cutting.

According to a statement released by SingTel, the company owns minority stakes in six operators with businesses across 25 countries, and has 416 million mobile phone customers

The company does own whole units in Australia and Singapore while minority stakes in operators across India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand, the Philippines, and Indonesia.

India’ Bharti Airtel, of which SingTel owns a stake, posted a drop in quarterly profit by 27 percent; attributed to higher borrowing costs and the start of new services.

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Smart Communications is a mobile network based in the Philippines. The operator has signed an agreement by way of which its customers will be able to use the HomeSend remittance service, offered by eServGlobal and BICS.

Empowered by HomeSend, Smart Communications stands to provide remittance services to their mobile money users. Apparently, this service will be popularly accepted in the country, given that more than $20 billion worth of international remittance is received every year, making it one of the top remittance receiving countries in the world. For instance, Qatar and the United Kingdom sent over US$500 million each in remittances to the Philippines in the year 2010.

HomeSend establishes a connection between a variety of mobile money systems and financial institutions across the world while it is the only mobile-centric international remittance hub endorsed by the GSMA.

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In order to offer a universal prepaid SIM card designed for mobile data roaming, eleven Asian mobile networks have joined hands. The rate for data usage would be a uniform one at $12 per day for unlimited downloads.

Singapore (SingTel Mobile), Malaysia (Maxis), Indonesia (Telkomsel), Philippines (Globe Telecom), Thailand (AIS) and India (Airtel) constitute the Bridge Alliance member networks across which countries, the Bridge AsiaRoamData SIM will be usable.

The Bridge AsiaRoamData SIM starter kit will cost $15 that is comprised of a data SIM card bundled with 1-day unlimited data roaming plan. Subsequent daily usage charges will be US$12 per day.

Currently, eleven Asian mobile operators constitute the Bridge Alliance partnership.

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