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SMART Communications Inc. said it will expand its connectivity to
more than 400 roaming partners in over 200 countries all over the
world.
Earlier, the Philippine Long Distance Telephone
Co. (PLDT) unit, through the Conexus Alliance, launched the
flat-rate, $10 per day unlimited mobile Internet for subscribers
that travel across Asia.
The alliance has seven member operators,
including Far EasTone Telecommunications Co., Ltd. in Taiwan,
Hutchison Telecommuni-cations (Hong Kong) Limited, PT Indosat Tbk in
Indonesia, KT Freetel Co. Ltd. in South Korea, NTT DoCoMo Inc. in
Japan, and StarHub Ltd. in Singapore.
Smart said visitors to the Philippines will
benefit from the roaming agreements of Smart with its partners
worldwide. “They are able to make and receive voice calls, send
and receive data, or access other Smart services when they get to
the country, keeping them connected to their home and business,
seamlessly,” Smart said.
The telecom company cornered about 55 percent of
the mobile phone service market, recording 31.6 million subscribers.
Smart recorded net additions of about 280,000
subscribers and Talk ‘N Text added about 1.25 million subscribers
to end the period with 20.6 million and 11 million subscribers,
respectively.
At end-April, the PLDT group’s cellular
subscriber base had surpassed the 32 million mark.
PLDT posted a first-quarter profit of P10.4
billion, higher by 21 percent from the P8.6 billion in the same
period last year.
Excluding foreign exchange gains or losses and
other non-recurring income, the telco’s core profit reached P9.3
billion, an increase of 11 percent from the P8.4 billion last year.
-- Darwin G. Amojelar
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