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BAYAN
Telecommunications Inc. will jumpstart its mobile-phone
business next year, using less than $100 million to
finance operations and a commercial launch set for May
next year.
Bayan
chief executive consultant Tunde Fafunwa said the
company already has in possession most of the equipment
and infrastructure to jumpstart its cellular operation.
“What we
are using for our wireless local loop will also be
utilized for our cellular operation. So, we won’t be
shelling out huge investment. We will just have to ride
on to our existing network because we already have in
place most of the requirements. Right now, I think we
are 60-percent ready,” Fafunwa said in an interview.
He said
the company will allocate a capital expenditure of less
than $100 million during the first 12 months of its
mobile-phone business.
Bayan
got its license to provide mobile telephone system on
May 3, 2000.
Last
April, the National Telecommunications Commission gave
Bayan a second extension that expires on November 3,
2010. The commission also mandated the company to start
its mobile-telephone operations within a year from the
date of its extended authority.
“We plan
to meet what the regulators mandated us. We will comply
with the conditions stated in our permit,” said Fafunwa.
To
ensure that Bayan will really expand into the
mobile-phone business, the commission said it should
strictly comply with the requirements. Otherwise, its
license could be revoked.
Bayan is
required, within seven years, to cover at least 80
percent of all provincial cities in the country
including all chartered cities.
The
company is also required to set aside from its operating
income each year not less than five percent of the value
of its depreciable property. This will then be kept in a
reserve fund to compensate for the physical depreciation
of the system. |
