COMMUNICASIA and BroadcastAsia will again take center stage at the Singapore Expo from June 17 to 20, this time offering visitors firsthand experience in digital convergence.

According to project director Victor Wong of Singapore Exhibition Services Pte. Ltd., visitors to these trade shows “will get to see cutting-edge enabling technologies and business solutions designed to enhance enterprises’ mobility and users’ lifestyle... they will also get to meet with representatives from telcos [telecommunications companies] and network operators, internet service providers enterprises, system integrators, broadcasters, postproduction studios animation houses, computer graphics producers [and] content owners and developers.”

Wong, who was in Manila to promote the event, noted that Philippine participants in the trade exposition include the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions, “which is helping us recruit exhibitors from the Philippines” and Mabuhay Satellite Corp, which operates Aguila II, the Philippines’ own commercial satellite and will be showcasing its products and services at the shows.

Other government agencies supporting Philippine participation at the two events are the Institute of Electronics Engineers of the Philippines and the Commission on Information and Communications Technology.

Wong said the CommunicAsia and BroadcastAsia events are ‘truly international” in nature, having attracted a total of over 68,000 attendees last year, “50 percent of whom were from outside Singapore,” who viewed “a wide spectrum of information and communications technology and media innovations that were put on display by over 2,400 exhibiting companies from 65 countries and regions.”

This year’s CommunicAsia event will showcase technologies ranging from 3.5G, LTE, WiMax, broadband, FMC, FTTH, NGN, IP technology like voice over Internet protocol, IPTV, mobile entertainment and satellite and security technologies.

For BroadcastAsia, visitors will experience Super High Vision (SHV) television, also known as Ultra High Definition TV—for the first time outside of Japan. SHV is a video format with a resolution 16 times higher than the existing resolution capability of high-definition TV.

The BroadcastAsia expo will also feature the “HD Xperience,” with a complete HD studio to explain how media asset management technology can help broadcaster redesign their workflows to reap the benefits of open standards-based production and archiving.

Digital map data provider NAVTEQ will also bring a dedicated location based services competition to and will be announcing the Asia-Pacific region winners at CommunicAsia.

Between 2005 and 2007, CommunicAsia and BroadcastAsia have seen a 28 percent increase in visitors from the Philippines. “This is seen as a reflection of the continued expansion in the Philippines’ ICT market this year, with overall information technology spending exceeding the $2-billion mark in 2008, reaching $2.03 billion, [as forecast] by global research group and think tank IDC,” Wong added.

Wong also noted that IDC said in a recent press release that the need for greater efficiency and productivity will drive companies and individuals in the Philippines to continue investing in business and personal technologies.

CEBU as Asia’s hub for information technology (IT) and business process outsourcing (BPO) will get a boost when six major projects are completed within the next two years in the 25-hectare Asiatown IT Park.

PLDT gains 1.5-M wireless users

WIRELESS subscribers of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) Group grew by about 1.5 million in the first quarter of the year.

NEW YORK—Citigroup Inc. is in talks to sell $12 billion of loans at a loss to Apollo Management LP, Blackstone Group LP and TPG Inc. as part of an effort to shrink the bank’s balance sheet, a person briefed on the matter said.

COMMUNICASIA and BroadcastAsia will again take center stage at the Singapore Expo from June 17 to 20, this time offering visitors firsthand experience in digital convergence.

TOP British outsourcing firm Strategic Back-Office Solutions will open its first facility in the Philippines today on an investment of $1.5 million, said the British envoy in Manila.

PACIFIC Online System Corp. said Wednesday its net income for 2007 rose 167 percent to P134.6 million from P50.5 million a year earlier.

The board of ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp. approved on March 26, 2008 a dividend declaration of P0.825 per share to stockholders as of April 30, 2008 that will be paid on or before May 27, 2008.