BayanTel bares P1-B investment for data services

Bayan Telecommunications Inc. (BayanTel) announced plans yesterday to invest some P1 billion this year for its data services in line with the growing demand for such applications, especially among high end corporate users.

Rodolfo Salazar, BayanTel president, said that the company has already put in approximately the same amount in 1999 to further develop the necessary infrastructure. BayanTel is a pioneer in local data services and has been in the business for over 10 years.

Salazar said he is confident that as demand shifts from voice to data, the latter's share in the company is revenues will jump significantly.

Data services currently represents a mere 20 percent of BayanTel's total revenue, but Salazar declined to provide any projection as to how big its share would be in the future.

So far, global trends show that telecom companies worldwide are aggressively embarking on value-added services brought about by the popularity of the Internet and are now no longer focusing on voice calls.

Even local carriers are changing focus due to the reduction in international toll rates which used to be the primary revenue earner for telecom firms.

"Data services is a core business for BayanTel. To other telecoms companies who are more focused on their land line business or their cellular business, or long distance services, data services is just a side product. But BayanTel remains the only major telecoms company who has always looked at data services as a core business and acted accordingly. We continue to invest heavily in this business, both in capital and in human resources," Salazar said.

To take advantage of the surging market for data connectivity, BayanTel launched an innovative program that will make migration to frame relay service more affordable to corporate customers.

Frame relay is a technology that allows voice, video, and data convergence.