PLDT Global Corp. (PGC), the international sales and marketing arm of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co.  (PLDT) Group, will forge partnerships with mobile phone operators in Italy and Macau next year.

PLDT chairman Manuel Pangilinan said the plan to forge an MVNO—mobile virtual network operation—deal with Italy will finally push through in the next couple of weeks.

“Our next target is Italy, which will be sometime early 2008,” Pangilinan said.

After Italy, PLDT Global is expected to ink a similar agreement with Macau. “Macau will be next, also in 2008,” the PLDT official added.

The year after that, PGC is targeting to forge two MVNO partnerships with two countries. “Taiwan will be in 2009 and there will be another country also in 2009,” Pangilinan said.

PLDT Global currently offers existing and new products and services of Smart Communications Inc.—the cellular arm of the phone giant—in Hong Kong and Singapore using the network and operational infrastructure of local mobile-phone firms there. Value-added services, such as Filipino-centric content and m-commerce, are also offered to meet the needs of the Filipino community in the region.

PLDT Global launched its first MVNO in Hong Kong in August 2004, branded as 1528 Smart, in partnership with Hong Kong CSL Ltd.

Under existing reseller agreement, PLDT Global offers to the 180,000 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Hong Kong mobile-phone rates that are cheaper by as much as 50 percent compared to rates charged by foreign networks.

OFWs in Hong Kong enjoy affordable call and text rates to the Philippines. A call to a PLDT subscriber was reduced to HK$0.85 per minute from HK$1.19. Calls to a Smart subscriber in the Philippines remains at HK$1.19 per minute.

The 1528 Smart service, which accounts for 40 percent of PLDT Global’s revenues, posted $24 million in net profit last year. This year, PLDT Global general manager Victor Genuino said that the numbers could grow by 10 percent to 15 percent.

1528 Smart has over 60,000 subscribers. Genuino said he is confident that the number of OFW subscribers will grow by at as much as 65,000 more by the end of 2007.

“The market is divided among seven players. We recently found out through a survey conducted that 1528 Smart is number one choice of OFWs here. Our target is to move the market share up anywhere from 55 percent to 65 percent,” Genuino said last July.

An estimated 87 percent of some 180,000 OFWs living in Hong Kong, or more than 150,000, own mobile phones, and the majority of these are on prepaid subscription.

US-based PeopleSupport Inc., a leading offshore business process outsourcing (BPO) provider, has refused the acquisition bid of IPVG Corp. and AO Capital Partners saying the unsolicited offer “is inadequate and fails to take into account its strategic value and success in implementing its growth strategy.”

PLDT Global eyes partnerships overseas

PLDT Global Corp. (PGC), the international sales and marketing arm of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co.  (PLDT) Group, will forge partnerships with mobile phone operators in Italy and Macau next year.

MEGAWORLD Corp., the listed property unit controlled by businessman Andrew L. Tan has renamed its controversial and latest residential project in Makati City from The Trumps to One Central, but said that it is not waiving its right to the brand.

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