Bayan Telecommunications, one of the country’s leading wireless landline service providers, has partnered with Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. to boost the coverage area of its Bayan Wireless Landline (BWL) service.
“We now have wider coverage in Metro Manila — a feat that will significantly improve our customers’ Bayan Wireless Landline experience,” said John Rojo, Bayan vice president for corporate brand communications. “Our 160,000-strong customer base now has more freedom to go mobile around the metro and enjoy the unlimited calling service of BWL.”
Huawei provides next generation network solutions for telecommunications operators around the world, and will lend its expertise to Bayan’s network expansion efforts. The strategic partnership promises to not only expand the coverage of BWL, but also improve the stability of its network service.
Bayan officials explained that the unlimited talk time offered by BWL aims to give Filipinos their voices back, since Filipinos forego calling for SMS texting due to expensive mobile call rates. BWL is supported by an all-IP based CDMA network — the ideal platform for handling voice calls as opposed to most networks that are configured more for SMS texting.
The Huawei base station expansion seeks to provide BWL subscribers with wider and more reliable communication services.
“This coverage expansion in Metro Manila is just one of the many things we are doing to continuously improve our BWL services,” said Bayan chief executive consultant Tunde Fafunwa. “We remain committed to our customers — that is why their satisfaction is always our number one priority.”
Bayan earlier announced plans to roll out additional base stations that would further expand coverage of the BWL service in Metro Manila within the first half of 2008 and launch the service in other provincial cities within the year.
At present, Bayan offers wireless landline services in Metro Manila, Naga, Legaspi, Tacloban, Samar, Davao, Iloilo, Cagayan de Oro and General Santos cities.
“Bayan Wireless Landline scored two remarkable achievements last year: first, the unlimited calling feature at a fixed monthly rate gave Pinoys their voices back after being stifled by overreliance on texting; second, it revived a previously dormant landline industry into a new and exciting and competitive category that led to positive subscriber growth,” Fafunwa has said.
“With more than 150,000 subscribers nationwide and growing, we are building on the momentum this year by expanding our coverage and launching more value-added services,” he said.
To date, BWL’s subscriber base has grown to over 160,000, officials revealed.
The growth of it’s wireless landline business significantly contributed to Bayan’s sustained business growth in 2007.
Total revenue of P5.5 billion last year was 15 percent better than the P4.8 billion posted during the previous year.
Coupled with the impact of the stronger peso, Bayan’s net income grew 319 percent to P2.2 billion in 2007 from P526 million the previous year.