MANILA, Philippines — Telco giant PLDT Inc. welcomes potential new industry players as well as new technologies that will make its way to the local telecommunications market such as satellite internet service.
“Well, satellite is not new in terms of connectivity. In fact, at PLDT, we welcome new technologies as we want to serve most of our customers, especially in the remote areas of the country where satellite is the best technology to serve our customers,” PLDT and Smart Communications Inc. president and CEO Alfredo Panlilio said during PLDT’s annual stockholders’ meeting yesterday.
“Because at the end of the day, I think we have to make sure that it’s the most cost effective solution to our customers and we’re able to offer good service to our customers,” he said.
Starlink, a division of American aerospace company SpaceX owned by tech magnate and billionaire Elon Musk, was given last month the green light by the National Telecommunications Commission to start offering internet access services to the Philippine market.
PLDT’s wireless arm Smart, for its part, is set to test space-based cellular broadband technology in partnership with US-based AST SpaceMobile, following a memorandum of understanding signed in July last year.
PLDT and global satellite operator Telesat of Canada earlier this year also successfully conducted the Philippines’ first on-orbit testing of high-speed broadband connectivity with Telesat’s Phase 1 LEO satellite.
Aside from new technologies, Panlilio also expressed PLDT’s openness to new potential competition that may come as a result of amendments to the Public Service Act (PSA).
The amendments to the PSA will allow foreign investors to own up to 100 percent of companies in the telecommunication, transportation and other public services.
“Well, it doesn’t change our north star where we want to put the customer in the center of our business. One of the pillars that we have identified moving forward is really to have the best customer experience in the country,” Panlilio said.
“So the company is working very hard to achieve that, regardless of what happens in the industry, whether new players are coming to the market. At the end of the day, it will be, who offers the best service,” he said.
PLDT has earlier raised its capital spending program this year to P85 billion from its original capex guidance of ?76 billion to P80 billion to support updated business requirements.
The increase will support updated requirements for the home broadband and data center businesses.