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Tuesday, September 30, 2003
More Smart cell sites, affordable airtime greet Sun’s advance
By Jessica B. Natad
THE cellular arm of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., Smart Communications Inc., is not taking the entry of Sun Cellular sitting down.
“Smart has prepared itself for Sun’s entry because we have been anticipating its coming. We have taken measures to expand our market, to increase our subscriber base,” Smart public affairs head Ramon Isberto said.
Gokongwei-led Sun Cellular, which was launched last April, had initially attracted many students. It offered its first 100,000 subscribers cheaper rates—P2 per minute for calls and P.50 per text message—for the first six months from its launch, Junrex Cellphones and Accessories Inc. retail sales manager Maharlika Mar earlier said.
Junrex is the exclusive distributor of Sun in the Visayas and Mindanao.
Smart’s Isberto said Smart’s counter-strategies to Sun’s lower rates include partnering with Nokia in the rolling out of “connect” cellular sites and its new over-the-air (OTA) prepaid reloading service.
The “connect” cell site allows a cellphone operator to lower the cost of putting up and maintaining a cell site by as much as 40 percent, he said.
With the cost reduction, Smart could now put up cell sites even in third- and fourth-class municipalities, where there are only a few subscribers.
“Usually, cellphone operators have to see to it that the investment made in putting up and maintaining a cell site will be sustained by the market. A cell site, which costs several millions of pesos, should serve several thousands of subscribers in an area,” Isberto said.
Smart now has 3,400 cell sites all over the country.
Meanwhile, Smart’s OTA, which offers airtime in “sachet-like” packages—P30, P60 and P115—has made Smart’s cellular phone service affordable and accessible to a broader market, Isberto said
Using this service, a retailer uses his cellphone to load credits over the air into a subscriber’s phone. No cards are needed.
Some 95 percent of Smart’s subscribers are using the prepaid cellular phone service, Isberto said.
He said Smart’s new service has expanded its subscriber base in the C, D and E markets.
Rival Globe Telecom has also introduced a prepaid card in a P100 denomination.
Globe president and chief executive officer Gerardo Ablaza Jr. earlier said the entry of Sun had not threatened the Ayala-led company.
“Its entry would help improve the quality of service in the industry because it would affect significant aspects in the cellular phone service—advertising, marketing, quality of services,” he said.
(September 30, 2003 issue)
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