PLDT offers new tech for fixed line services
MANILA – Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT), the country’s largest telecom firm, on Monday said it will offer a new technology that would revive its landline business.
In a statement, PLDT said it is transforming the face of its fixed line business with a new offering that bundles a landline service with a touch-screen tablet and a high speed myDSL service all under one service plan.
The landline business had fallen on hard times due to the popularity of text messaging or SMS (short messaging service).
The PLDT TelPad unit includes a special handset that also serves as a charging dock for an application-rich, seven-inch screen tablet computer.
Subscribers can use the handset or the portable tablet computer to make and receive phone calls and access over a hundred thousand online applications.
This is on top of the unlimited broadband access of the bundled service.
“We are reshaping the future of the landline and we are starting to bring it to the market now,” Napoleon L. Nazareno, PLDT president and chief executive said.
At end-September, PLDT’s total number of fixed line subscribers stood at 1.84 million.
Revenues generated from PLDT’s fixed line business amounted to P37.043 billion in the first nine months, down four percent, or P1.35 billion, from P38.4 billion in the same period last year.
PLDT’s fixed line revenues dropped two percent to P11.56 billion in the first nine months this year compared to the P11.74 billion in a year ago.
Nazareno said that the PLDT TelPad was conceptualized and developed here in the Philippines using world-class technology.”
The PLDT TelPad tablet is powered by a 1Ghz Cortex A8 processor that enables the device to deliver snappy performance.
It runs on Android’s latest operating system version 2.2, which offers genuine multi-tasking capabilities.
PLDT said users of TelPad could download a wide range of applications from the Android Market, Google’s online store which offers over 125,000 applications like business apps, e-books and magazines and digital games like the highly popular Angry Birds.
The TelPad also carries a two-megapixel front camera for still shots and video conference calls.
“We’ve packed the PLDT TelPad with features that will dramatically change how we use landlines,” Eric R. Alberto, PLDT senior vice president said, adding that the Philippine market, with its growing number of ‘netizens’, is ready for an innovative service such as the PLDT Telpad.
“We expect TelPad will be very well received and will create a new market of adopters to this new and exciting service. We are bringing back relevance to and expanding the value proposition of the landline in the home,” he added.
Recently, PLDT also completed the P2.8-billion upgrade of the PLDT Domestic Fiber Optic Network, the country’s most extensive and resilient fiber optic network with a total of 10,050 kilometers connecting 68 nodes and equipped with a total network bandwidth capacity of 1.56 Terabytes.*PNA
