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By Darwin G. Amojelar Reporter
THE National Telecommunications
Commission (NTC) said the wireless landline (WLL) service revived
telecom companies’ landline business last year.
Data from NTC showed that the
fixed line subscribers rose by 8 percent to 3.9 million last year
from 3.6 million in 2006. The landline business had fallen on hard
times due to the popularity of text messaging or SMS (short
messaging service).
Edgardo Cabarios, director of
NTC’s common carrier and authorization department, attributed the
increase in the number of landline subscribers to the rising demand
for wireless landline in Metro Manila and other parts of the
country.
“There is a market for this
kind of service as people want mobility at a cheaper rate. The trend
now is that people want to move because of the cell phone. They want
mobility while moving around,” he said.
Bayan Telecommunicaions Inc.,
which started the WLL in the second half of last year posted a 60
percent growth in landline subscribers to 379,724 from 227,057 in
2006.
Rival Philippine Long Distance
Telephone Co. (PLDT) recorded a 5- percent increase in subscribers
with 2.1 million last year from 2 million in 2006. Globe Telecom
Inc. and unit Innove Communications Inc. had 329,908 subscribers
last year.
At end-March, PLDT Landline Plus
subscribers stood at 75,000, of which 60,000 are postpaid and
15,000, prepaid subscribers. Bayan had 160,000 subscribers.
Globe and Digital
Telecommunications Philippines Inc. (Digitel) also offer wireless
landline service through Mango and Globe Wireless Landline,
respectively.
The International Data Corp.
earlier said that the WLL service is becoming more popular in
certain markets as operators use the technology to offer unlimited
voice calls that resemble services offered by traditional landlines.
Despite the wild success of
Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) mobile services, there
remains significant pent-up demand for wireless landline as the
pricing of GSM services makes frequent calls unaffordable to many,
the research firm said.
Cabarios said that despite
soaring food and oil prices, telcos are expected to sustain the
double-digit growth of mobile phone subscribers this year.
At end-2007, the NTC said the
country’s cellular phone subscribers grew 25 percent to 57.3
million from 42.9 million in 2006.
Of the total , Smart
Communication Inc. and Pilipino Telephone Corp., (Piltel) had
combined subscribers of 30 million, while Globe had 22.8 million.
Digitel recorded 4.5 million
subscribers while Eastern Telecommunications Philippnies Inc. and
NEXT Mobile had 10,374 and 22,441, respectively.
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