Piltel to join GSM bandwagon

Taking advantage of its recent integration with cellular market leader Smart Communications Inc., cash-strapped Pilipino Telephone Corp. (Piltel) has joined the GSM digital bandwagon beginning April 1.

GSM, or the global system for mobile communications, is a wireless standard developed in Europe which is now highly popular worldwide due to the various features it could support, primarily the short message service (SMS) which allows subscribers to send and receive data via their handsets.

Ramon Isberto, spokesman for the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) and its subsidiaries, said Piltel will position itself for price-conscious users since it does not have postpaid service packages.

Smart, on the other hand, will target the high-end market which is interested in value-added services such as mobile banking, information-on-demand, mobile Internet, among others, he added.

Before embarking on GSM, Piltel has suffered tremendously from billing problems in its analog network which saw it slipping from the number one slot down to third place.

Likewise, Piltel failed to attract customers for its code division multiple access (CDMA) digital service, primarily because of its lack of text messaging capability.

There is, however, no intention to phase out Piltel's analog and CDMA networks which have a combined subscriber base of over 400,000 since there is still a market for the two technologies, Isberto pointed out.

He said Piltel is banking on the fast growing Philippine GSM market which currently has an estimated two million subscribers.

According to him, there will be very little capital expenditure for Piltel on the new undertaking since the company will no longer have to build cell sites around the country.

Instead, he said Piltel entered into a lease agreement with Smart wherein the former will use part of Smart's existing facilities for the service. He refused to provide any amount nor the target number of customers this year.

Although Smart will handle the operations of Piltel's GSM network, Isberto said marketing will be the primarily responsibility of Piltel.

Incidentally, all Piltel prepaid SIM (subscriber identification module) cards which are being used for GSM phones can be used for SIM-locked Smart cellular phones. Text messaging among customers of the two firms can also be done.

"We're looking at it on a group perspective. It represents our effort to cover the market extensively and intensively. We want to develop an element of specialization. This is a test and we'll see what will happen next," he said.

Piltel's prepaid service will charge a peak hour rate of P8 per minute and P4 for off-peak.

For the promo period from April 1 to June 30 this year, the prepaid cards will carry an extra value ranging from P50 to P200 and free text messages from P100 to P750. The prepaid cards have a denomination of P300, P500 and P1,000.

Piltel also offers a prepaid Alcatel phone kit of only P3,500 including a P300 call card.