Vodafone partners with Smart Communications to deliver managed services (Philippines)
Mobile operator Vodafone has partnered with Smart Communications to offer managed services to large corporations in Philippines.
According to reports, Stevan Hoyle, president, Vodafone’s enterprise operations in APAC, has said that the value to Vodafone of collaborating with (Conexus) is significant given the growing importance of Asia to the enterprise customers. He added that the partnership with Smart will allow the Philippines operator to provide global enterprises operating in the Philippines with a range of services through a single contract. With MNC employees using a variety of handsets, devices and tablets more and more for greater mobility, these enterprises need to streamline their legal needs.
Hoyle also said that corporate customers want to have fewer lawyers working on fewer contracts. They offer to wrap things up in one contract, one SLA (service level agreement). Reports reveal that the managed services offered will include Spend Manager for global spend information and procurement tracking service Central Ordering.
Globe Telecom reports 7 percent rise in subscriber additions (Philippines)
Philippines telecommunications company Globe Telecom has reported an increase in its subscriber base for the past year. According to company reports, Ernest Cu, President, Globe Telecom has said that the firm had a total of 30 million subscribers by the end of 2011, representing a 13 per cent increase over its client base of 26.47 million at the end of the previous year.
The telecom operator has been working towards increasing its market share and increasing its subscriber base across segments, in comparison with rival Smart Communications. Cu added that they have actually been converting more and more users from rival operators to Globe, in addition to converting more of their own prepaid users to postpaid users.
As per the company, gross subscriber acquisitions increased to 6.1 million in the fourth quarter. Further, the total additions for the year stood at 23.2 million, representing a 7 per cent rise from 21.8 million subscribers in 2010.
Looking towards the finances for this year, the operator claims that it has sufficient funds to carry out the required capital expenditures for 2012. As per sources, Albert Larrazabal, CFO, Globe, has said that the company would require raising US$ 585 million this year to carry out the planned network upgrade. He added that the company also plans to undertake US$ 234 million in retail bonds by June or July this year, while the remaining US$ 117 million will be raised in 2013. Larrazabal also said that the company will prepay its debt amounting to US$ 70 million this month.
Larrazabal states that the benefits of the transformation will be felt towards the second half of the year, actually what will happen as they roll out in different areas. Sources claim that the network upgrade is expected to improve quality in voice, text and data services.
Smart Communications starts public trial of its LTE network (Philippines)
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.
Smart to deploy 800 WiMAX sites (Philippines)
Smart Communications has unveiled its plans to deploy a further 800 WiMAX sites during the first half of 2011.
The launch will be focused on in provinces with low internet penetration where access to high speed broadband is limited.
According to the company, its WiMAX network is to complement its HSPA network. At the end of 2010, Smart claimed more than 51% of the country’s wireless subscriber market, while parent company PLDT was the dominant operator in the broadband sector, with an almost 60% share of subscribers.
Western Union collaborates With SBI to Launch Mobile Money Transfer in India
Western Union has collaborated with State Bank of India (SBI) to provide accountholders with cross-border money transfers via mobile phones. In July, Western Union announced the introduction of the Account-Based Money Transfer (ABMT) service which will be launched in early 2011. This service will facilitate SBI customers with online bank accounts to pull a Western Union Money Transfer directly into their accounts via Internet or ATM.
According to Anil Kapur, Western Union’s Senior VP (South and Southeast Asia), India is the world’s No. 1 remittance recipient country, and according to World Bank figures, has received US$52 billion in 2009. Currently, consumers can send Mobile Money Transfers from nearly 70,000 Western Union Agent locations in 25 countries.
Western Union has 61,000 locations in India, and the mobile transfer partnership will allow it to expand its distribution within India using SBI’s network. Western Union already has a partnership with SBI, with over 12,000 SBI branches offering Western Union Money Transfer service.
SBI has 110 million accountholders, of which more than 4 million are registered for online banking.
Western Union also offers the Mobile Money Transfer service in the Philippines with Smart Communications and Globe Telecom; in Kenya with Safaricom; in Malaysia with Maxis; and in South Africa with Absa Bank.
The company also announced an agreement with EnStream in Canada and has agreements with Tunisian Post and Bank of Commerce & Development (BoCD) in Libya. In addition, Western Union previously announced an alliance with Zain (Airtel) in Africa.
Conexus Mobile Alliance unveils logo, welcomes Smart Comms
The Asian alliance of mobile operators unveiled its official name and logo: Conexus Mobile Alliance. Furthermore, Philippine mobile operator Smart Communications has joined the alliance. The alliance, created in April 2006, was formed to enhance members’ competitiveness in international roaming services in their own countries/regions and across Asia-Pacific.In addition to offering roaming services, most member operators have begun providing caller ID and short-code services to their customers as they roam into another member operator’s network. Alliance members are also working with multinational corporate clients to provide international data roaming packages and are considering the possibility of joint procurement to reduce costs.
The alliance’s other members are Far EasTone Telecommunications (Taiwan), Hutchison Essar (India), Hutchison Telecommunications (Hong Kong and Macau), Indosat (Indonesia), KT Freetel (South Korea), NTT DoCoMo (Japan) and StarHub (Singapore). Conexus said it continues to encourage other mobile operators to join the alliance.
Source- telecompaper Wireless Mobile Telecom
