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THE telecommunications arm of the Gokongwei group said it will
accelerate the roll out of its cellular phone sites so that its
mobile services can fully cover subscribers nationwide and carry all
the telephony protocols the company plans to launch.
James Go, Digital Telecommunications Phils. Inc.
chief executive officer, said Sun Cellular would have at least 4,000
cell sites by year-end by rolling out 150 cell sites a month.
With the additional cell sites, the firm can
beef up its network by introducing High-Speed Downlink Packet Access
(HSDPA), a third generation (3G) mobile telephony communications
protocol, during the first quarter within the Greater Manila Area
and probably Cebu. Go said HSDPA would allow subscribers to access
the Internet at speeds of up to 3.5 megabits per second (Mbps).
Besides the 3G platform, Digitel would also be
strengthening its enhanced data rates for GSM evolution for Sun
cellular. Besides cellular-phone services, Digitel would also
fortify its code division multiple access (CDMA) services under its
Mango wireless landline brand this year by launching the Wideband
Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), which would enable
subscribers to access the Internet through their wireless landline.
Bayan Telecommunications, which earlier gained
ground in the wireless landline market, already has at least 150,000
subscribers while the country’s biggest telecommunications firm,
Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. is also catching up.
To fund these projects, Digitel plans to borrow
85 percent of its $350-million capital expenditures—up from $300
million last year—from export credit agencies. Go said the company
can tap its agents in France, in some Scandinavian countries and
China for the money.
By year-end, Digitel may double its subscribers
from its present 5 million, he said. Last year, the company deployed
its next generation network infrastructure, built by its foreign
partners Huawei, Ericsson and Alcatel.
At end-September, Digetel’s net loss dropped
by 74 percent to P229 million due to the higher net foreign exchange
gains. Its service and nonservice revenues inched up by 3.9 percent
to P6.07 million during the period while operating expenses rose 7.3
percent to 4.3 million.
-- Likha C. Cuevas-Miel
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