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Bayan Telecommunications Inc. has rolled out its mobile phone
service to meet the May deadline set by the National
Telecommunications Commission for the extension of the company’s
license, the regulator announced Tuesday.
The first license obtained by the Lopez-owned
telecom company to operate cellular mobile telephone service (CMTS)
on May 3, 2000 was extended up to November 3, 2005. In May last
year, the NTC approved the extension of Bayan’s provisionary
authority to operate CMTS up to 2010.
With the launching of the telco’s cellular
phone service, the company complied with the conditions stated in
the agency’s provisionary authority given last year, Edgardo
Cabarios, director of NTC’s common carrier and authorization
department, told reporters.
Bayan was required to roll out its CMTS offering
within a year, or 12 months from the date of its acceptance of its
extended authority, and to cover at least 80 percent of all
provincial cities in the country, including all chartered cities, in
seven years.
Cabarios said Bayan has started mobile phone
service that runs on global system for mobile communications [GSM]
platform, but added it can make calls and text messages only within
its network as it does not have yet any interconnection agreement
with other cellular phone providers.
The NTC official said Bayan’s late entry
should prod the telco to find its own niche to stay competitive.
John Rojo, Bayan vice president for corporate
brand and communications, confirmed that the company has launched
its mobile phone service called Bayan Mobile last month.
Tunde Fafunwa, chief executive consultant,
said the company plans to spend close to $100 million this year to
finance its mobile phone business.
In a filing with NTC, Bayan said its CMTS
network is based on GSM technology that will be integrated with the
existing CDMA 2000 wireless local loop network technology, national
backbone, international and metropolitan network and IP Core network
of the company.
Based on the company’s submitted roll-out
plan, the proposed Base Transmitter Station nationwide coverage for
the first three- and five-year period of implementation is 24
percent and 46 percent, respectively, of the total number of cities
and municipalities.
Bayan said it will rollout 745 BTS
nationwide in five years of which 282 will be installed in Luzon,
147 in the Visayas, 94 in Mindanao, and 222 in Metro Manila. ZTE
Corporation will offer end-to-end solution for the company’s
equipment.
-- Darwin G Amojelar
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