Smart partners with Vodafone

MANILA, Philippines - The country’s leading wireless services provider has joined forces with one of the world’s largest mobile communications companies to provide subscribers with new mobile and data services, including sharing of network rollout strategies.

As the first and only partner of Vodafone in the Philippines, Smart Communications said it now has access to the telecom giant’s vast pool of knowledge and resources, including cutting-edge information technology systems and best practices in roaming, marketing and customer value management.

Smart and Vodafone will also enter a series of collaborations, which may include the sharing of rollout strategies for LTE (Long Term Evolution) and green networks.

Vodafone is one of the world’s largest mobile communications companies by revenue with approximately 398 million customers in its controlled and jointly controlled markets as of Dec. 31, 2011. Vodafone currently has equity interests in over 30 countries across five continents and more than 40 partner networks worldwide.

Smart international and carrier business division head Alex Caeg, who is also deputy chairman of the Conexus Mobile Alliance Board, said they will work together with Vodafone to meet the growing demand among multinational businesses for sophisticated voice, data and roaming solutions within and beyond the Asia Pacific region.

Meanwhile, Smart international roaming business and alliances head Mary Alice Ramos noted that Smart’s collaboration with Vodafone will make possible game changing initiatives in the areas of customer service, e-services, roaming offerings, among others.

 “Through our participation in the Conexus alliance, Smart customers have been first in the region to enjoy a daily data rate of only $10 when roaming on Conexus member networks. With Smart’s expanded collaboration with both Conexus and Vodafone, we can look forward to more customer-friendly benefits over a larger roaming footprint in the near future,” she added.

Smart customer care head Joy Sanchez said this partnership will enable Smart to provide better online self-care services to subscribers by harnessing Vodafone’s global best practices for both web services and social media.

“This will allow better customer experience in serving the evolving demands of our subscribers. We are fully committed to developing a long-lasting relationship with our customers. This commitment is being reinforced by the way we communicate with our customers online. Our partnership with Vodafone enables us to leverage off the combined years of online experience of both Smart and Vodafone globally,” Smart digital media head Mellissa Limcaoco, for her part, pointed out.

This collaboration is made possible by the strategic partnership between Vodafone and Conexus, one of Asia’s largest mobile alliances which counts Smart and other regional telecom leaders like Japan’s NTT Docomo, Singapore’s StarHub, and Hong Kong’s Hutchison Telecommunications as active members.

The data-roaming reach of Conexus members, which have a combined customer base of 320 million, has now expanded from 10 Asian markets to more than 30 markets in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Africa.

Officials said the partnership will help Smart provide its multinational corporate subscribers with enhanced network coverage, harmonized roaming rates across multiple countries and improved cost-efficiency.

They added that Smart’s multinational corporate subscribers will be given access to selected resources, products, and services of the Vodafone Global Enterprise, which serves 140 multinational companies based in the Asia Pacific and 435 more customers operating in the region.

Established in April 2006, the Conexus Mobile Alliance seeks to develop and enhance international roaming and corporate mobile services for greater convenience and ease of use for its members’ customers. From a combined customer base of 100 million five years ago, Conexus has grown to over 320 million customers.