Dominant telecommunications firmPhilippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) is expanding its long-standing partnership with South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. to deliver full-service packaged business solutions for the large enterprise market.
The partnership, which also includes Smart Communications Inc., the wireless subsidiary of the telecommunications titan, is essentially an extension of the three companies’ tie-up that seeks to support the development of Samsung devices paired with PLDT and Smart’s service offerings designed for corporate clients, like the Smart M2M (machine-to-machine) solutions.
“We are excited to further strengthen our ties with a globally admired brand, such as Samsung. This partnership definitely adds value to the services we provide our customers, and bolsters our position as the preferred and trusted ICT [information and communications technology] provider of large enterprises,” PLDT Executive Vice President Eric R. Alberto said over the weekend. “We are confident that, through this continued support and partnership, the PLDT Group will sustain its leadership and bring forth exciting solution bundles, both in hardware and software offerings, to the market.”
Through this partnership, the PLDT Group and Samsung will co-develop specialized business solutions for the enterprise level with an “Operated Dedicated Support” agreement, including dedicated after-sales hot lines for business-to-business handset models, and full participation in commercialization and co-branding in marketing efforts.
“We are looking forward to this extended tie-up, as this will greatly benefit our market in terms of marketability of Samsung, when partnered with a long-standing enabler such as PLDT and Smart. We are hopeful that this collaboration can give compelling business innovations suitable for the current market,” Samsung Philippines President Harry Lee said during the contract-signing.
Since partnering with Samsung, the PLDT Group has offered specialized business packages that bundle unique Samsung devices with business connectivity and solutions targeted at both enterprise and small and medium enterprises businesses. This extended partnership aims to develop solutions primarily for the large enterprise level, and will greatly enhance service offerings of the PLDT Group as it heavily promotes business-mobility solutions for enterprise markets, such as the PLDT Cloud, M2M and the Internet of Things.
PLDT is the leading telecommunications provider in the Philippines, having the lion’s share of the duopolized market in the Philippines. Its bottom line, however, suffered from a spike in subsidies and taxes in 2014, booking a 4-percent dip from P35.4 billion in 2013 to P34.1 billion last year.
The 2-percent increase in total revenues to P170.97 billion was heavily offset by the faster 4-percent rise in expenses, which was pegged at P130.46 billion as of end-December.
Core net income—which strips off one-time gains and losses—was at P37.4 billion, well above its revised target of P37 billion. It was, however, 3 percent lower than the P38.7 billion recorded in 2013. The rise in revenues was driven mainly by the contributions of the firm’s data and broadband, as well as domestic voice businesses. There were, however, declines in text-message revenues and the international and national long-distance streams. Shares of PLDT declined by 4 percent to close at P2,770 apiece on Thursday.