BAYAN Telecommunications Inc. is allotting a capital expenditure (capex) of P1.5 billion to P2 billion this year to fund existing network projects, particularly its wireless landline service.

“Our capex this year will be under P2 billion, of which P1.5 billion will be spent to finance our wireless landline operation,” chief executive consultant Tunde Fafunwa said in an interview.

Money will also be used to finance the company’s other businesses such as broadband, Internet protocol, and its share in the National Digitel Transmission Network (NTDN), the country’s second-largest backbone in which Bayan controls about 92 percent of network capacity.

Fafunwa said the company would further beef up the network coverage of its wireless landline business to reach its target number of subscribers this year.

Right now, there are more than 150,000 subscribers to Bayan’s wireless landline service which is offered in Metro Manila, Naga, Legaspi, Tacloban, Samar, Davao, Iloilo , Cagayan de Oro and General Santos.

“With more than 150,000 subscribers nationwide and growing, we are building on the momentum this year by expanding our coverage and launching more value-added services,” Fafunwa said.

Bayan said it will rollout additional base stations to further expand coverage of its wireless landline service in Metro Manila within the first half of 2008 and launch the service in other provincial cities within the year.

“Our target is to more than double our wireless landline subscribers. That would mean more than 300,000 subscribers this year,” he added.

For the first quarter of the year, Fafunwa earlier said that revenues grew more than 20 percent from P1.26 billion a year earlier.

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BAYAN Telecommunications Inc. is allotting a capital expenditure (capex) of P1.5 billion to P2 billion this year to fund existing network projects, particularly its wireless landline service.

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