TELECOM giant Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) group is forming a new business unit dedicated to serving the home market, its president Napoleon Nazareno said.

The home market unit, Nazareno explained, will work with the phone giant’s three other market segments—enterprise, international and individual consumer.

“We have organized a new business unit within the group dedicated to serving the home market which is part of the PLDT’s four pillars. The individual market deals with our subscriber while the enterprise segment which includes the SMEs (small and medium enterprises) and micro businesses. For international, we have the inbound and outbound.

The home products and offerings, which include our DSL and SmartBro brands, [will form] part of the home market,” explained Nazareno.

The members of these four business units have been drawn from both the fixed and mobile businesses and are concentrated on serving customers and developing new products for each of these markets, added the PLDT official.

Nazareno said over the past five years, there were many aspects of the organization and operations of the group that have already been placed on a convergent platform. But in the face of the industry’s new challenges there is a need to raise convergence to its fullest potential. The creation of the home market, he added, is the first step toward achieving PLDT’s new direction.

“Regardless of the technology, we are focusing on these segments. There is going to be a better approach, like bundling the services,” explained Nazareno. 

He said improved and expanded PLDT fixed and mobile networks will serve as platforms for PLDT’s so-called new synergy services which include prepaid electricity services and smart meters being developed for Meralco, as well as Maynilad, Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. and the various hospitals under parent firm Metro Pacific Investments Corp. “Convergence is thus acquiring a business footprint far beyond the PLDT group,” said the company executive

PLDT is earmarking a total of P67 billion for capital expenditures (capex) in the next two years to achieve this effort.

“PLDT’s increased capex includes programmed spending in pursuit of our goal to achieve undisputed market leadership through a superior network quality of service. We will also embark on the upgrade of our wireless network to achieve network and operating cost efficiencies,” said Nazareno.