Far from over?

It seems that the crisis in Smart Communications’s new company, Meridian Telecoms is far from over.

Questions continue to surface why 40 of its top management packed up and resigned. Rene Dos Remedios, former president of Meridian, has been vocal of shabby treatment as the reason for their departure. Smart won’t offer an explanation though for the en masse resignation. According to Smart public affairs head Mon Isberto "while it is indeed unfortunate that 40 senior officers and employees decided to leave the company in a huff last week, their departure has not at all diminished the value and viability of Meridian."

One big question floating in the business community is the acquisition price of $45 million or nearly P2.5 billion. Why pay that much if the real value of the company is only a fraction of the price, with some reports indicating only P30 million? Some very reliable sources say the huge amount was paid to legitimize the "pay-off" to Mark Jimenez and his cohorts who helped the First Pacific group in its hostile takeover of PLDT. But whatever the reasons are, clearly, a huge premium was paid by Smart for Meridian Telecoms. I don’t think that was shabby treatment.

But like I said, the crisis opened up other questions. Among telecom engineers, the big issue is not the valuation of the company, but the technology. Smart has said they are rolling out the Motorola Canopy technology nationwide to provide wireless broadband. I’ve asked around about this technology and some say that in concept it may work, but some also say it is a big risk.

There are two reasons why they say this. First, there is no known country in the world that has used Canopy extensively. It is used as a backup and cost effective solution to areas that cannot be served by wired broadband. But it has not been used to blanket major cities, more so a whole country.

Secondly, Canopy requires a line of sight. If there is no line of sight between your modem/receiver and the base station, it will not give the customer the connectivity. I called a Smart Wi-fi agent to explain to me how it works, and she told me I need to erect a 20-foot mast on top of my roof so they can have the line of sight. And any time that line of sight is disrupted or changed, the connection will fail.

This probably explains the reason why the National Telecommunications Commission received mounting complaints against Smart Wi-fi to the point that the NTC had to call the officials of the company to explain, and why a congressman is pursuing legislation to protect consumers from poor wireless broadband service.

In fairness to the very capable Engr. Rolando Peña, head of Smart’s network services division, who was designated as the new OIC of Meridian Telecoms, it was under Mr. Remedios and his crew that the lousy quality of service issues exploded in the press, in the NTC, in the DOTC, among consumer groups, and among its subscribers.

According to Mon Isberto, Peña and his team have met with the remaining 192 Meridian employees and have addressed their concerns and that everyone is now focused on continuing to build Meridian as an integral part of Smart and the PLDT Group.

He said the new management team has already taken steps to significantly improve Meridian’s service. This would include more than tripling the company’s international bandwidth, upgrading equipment throughout the nationwide wireless broadband network which Isberto said have already begun to have a positive impact on the company’s overall service quality level.

Isberto emphasizes that despite the distractions of recent events, Smart’s investment in Meridian has started to pay off. By combining Meridian’s broadband technology with the nationwide infrastructure of Smart and PLDT, he says they have vastly expanded the reach of their wireless broadband Internet access service, now covering over 320 cities and municipalities and serving approximately 40,000 customers nationwide. Thus, within the space of a few months, Smart’s wireless broadband service is already the second largest in the country.

He adds that with Meridian, the PLDT Group has positioned itself strategically to take the lead in offering broadband services all over the country, broadband being the future of the telecom business as shown by the fact that broadband users has been doubling annually in the past few years.

Unfortunately, the question of whether or not the Motorola Canopy technology works in the first place remains no matter who is handling the business. If indeed Smart, through Peña, can make it work this time, then the consumer complaints should stop. After all, consumers do not care who makes it work, so long as Smart Wi-fi works and delivers the speed and convenience it promises.

Supporting microenterpreneurs

Based on initial feedbacks, the two-day Micronegosyo Fair organized by the Philippine Center for Entrepreneurship which began last Friday at the Philippine Army Gym in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig was a huge success. It is so far the most comprehensive entrepreneurship event ever attempted.

The event was a sequel to the PCE’s well-received Go Negosyo Summit and Expo last month and a continuation of the advocacy to promote business start-ups to boost institutions that nurture entrepreneurs, according to presidential consultant for entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion. The Micronegosyo Fair had a good participation from the spouses of military personnel who want to get ideas and assistance on how to improve their family incomes.

It was a haven for aspiring and budding microentrepeneurs who wanted to learn from those who started small but were able to turn their businesses into multi-million if not billion peso enterprises. Les Reyes of Reyes Haircutters, Richie Cuna of Fiorgelato, Chit Juan of Figaro, Cheese Ledesma of The Big Chill, Jeanne Banez of Balut Eggspress, Merle Alferez of MSA, Rommel Juan of Binalot, Doyee Tumpalan of First Quadrant, Sandy Javier of Andok’s, Ronald Pineda of Folded and Hung, Ricardo Collantes of Kookai’s, Jose Magsaysay of Potato Corner, and many more, were there to give precious advice on how to start a small business and be successful at it.

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