Nextel allots $50M for new tech

Nextel Communications Phils. Inc. (NCPI) is spending at least $50 million this year (around P2.5 billion) in a technology that will allow the trunk radio operator to reposition its mobile phones into one that will allow a host of wireless applications.

NCPI president Emilio Festejo said that of the total amount, around $8 million (P400 million) has already been spent for a new service that will give the still-to-be-commercialized general packet radio service (GPRS) of Smart Communications and Globe Telecom head-on competition.

The total amount its financed mainly through vendor and suppliers credit, as well as advances from shareholders.

NCPI is 40 percent owned by Nextel International, Inc. which posted revenues of $5.7 billion last year, and has a subscriber base in North America, Latin America, and Asia of seven million.

The local company currently has 50,000 subscribers and is targeting to increase this to 70,000 by year-end.

The company will be launching anytime this quarter its packet data service, which will allow a better connection to the World Wide Web via a mobile phone. GPRS was supposed to provide a better alternative to the highly problematic and inefficient wireless application protocol (WAP) which is the first attempt to marry the mobile phone and the Internet but Smart and Globe are having problems finding commercially available GPRS-enabled handsets.

Just last May, Nextel introduced the wireless JAVA enabled handsets, which is the first in the country. As early as 1999, the company launched its i1000+ series which was the first packet data capable mobile phone in Asia, but Festejo admitted that this did not appeal much to the market due to the lack of marketing push as well as good-looking handsets.

Festejo, who took over the presidency of Nextel Phils. just recently after a long stint with Nortel Networks and Express Telecommunications, said that the company also has roaming agreements with 53 GSM operators as well as other Iden networks in Asia, Europe, and Latin America.