|
PHILIPPINE Long Distance Telephone Co. is in talks with Japanese
leading telecom firm NTT DoCoMo, Inc. about its plan to offer mobile
phone service to Filipino seamen working in Japan.
Manuel V. Pangilinan, PLDT chairman, said
he and NTT DoCoMo officials are discussing a possible partnership
for a number of telecom services that can be offered to Filipino
seafarers in Japan.
Pangilinan said NTT DoCoMo has shown
interest in the service being offered by Blue Ocean Wireless (BOW)
and Inmarsat.
Blue Ocean Wireless provides the world’s
first global system for mobile communication (GSM) network on the
seas through Altobridge, a patented GSM platform that supports full
voice and text services.
Smart Communications, Inc., through
Smart-Connect Holdings PTE Ltd., has 30-percent equity in BOW worth
$15.9 million. Smart is a subsidiary of PLDT.
Smart sees BOW as an important
complementary service to its prepaid wireless satellite phone
service, SMARTLink.
“If they [NTT DoCoMo] can help us in
Japan to install base stations on the Japanese vessels, they can
introduce us to the various shipping companies Many Filipino seamen
are working in Japan,” Pangilinan said.
The PLDT chariman said there are about
2,000 to 2,500 staff per vessel, most of them Filipinos. Globally,
there are about 1.1 million seafarers, of whom 500,000 are
Filipinos.
Earlier, Smart also partnered with
Inmarsat, a global mobile satellite communications provider, in
seting up a multi-million dollar gateway facility for its satellite
phone service.
The joint venture with Inmarsat involves a
$5-million investment by Smart to establish a gateway facility and
ground infrastructure in Subic, Zambales. The facilities will expand
its Smart Link prepaid wireless satellite phone service coverage
area initially in India, the Indian Ocean, the Middle East, Africa,
and the Pacific Ocean.
-- Darwin G. Amojelar
|
