Now Corp. is vying to become the third player in competitive mobile phone services market. It recently asked  the National Telecommunication Commission (NTC)  to grant its long pending  mobile frequency.

Now Corp. subsidiary Now Telecom has obtained a cellular mobile telephone services (CMTS) license  in 2006 but has yet to obtain  frequencies that would enable it  to compete with  incumbent players PLDT
Inc. and Globe  Telecom

Mel Velarde,  Now Corp. president and chief executive officer, said if the frequencies are  granted this year, the company can roll out its mobile services next year.

The company is allotting an initial investment of P2 billion for the first 300 cell sites which cost $150,000 each .

The company will focus on mobile data services to challenge the growing business of the existing telcos but  Velarde said , Now’s  mobile data service will have  “no data cap”  where  a minimum and
maximum data speed is set to ensure  superior data experience.

At present, there are only two other telcos aside from PLDT and Globe which have CMTS licenses,  Now Corp and ABS-CBN Convergence.

NTC  plans to bid out the frequency surrendered by PLDT and Globe and the  3G frequency of Connectivity Unlimited Enterprise Resources (CURE) to a possible third player.

Velarde said Now  will participate in the bidding , but emphasized  the bidding should be on the merit of the business proposal not through outright payment saying it would be anti-competition if  government
sells the frequency to a  third player and just give the frequencies for free to giant players like PLDT, Globe and San Miguel Corp.

Velarde said if Now  bids for the frequency, NTC should ask the three players to pay also all frequencies they now have .

Now  plans to roll out the mobile services nationwide in partnership with a foreign firm .

Following the approval of the co-use agreement, the two firms had surrendered a total of 85 megahertz excess frequency from several spectrums shared from SMC which includes, 800 mhz; 2300 mhz; 2500;
1800; 2300 and 2600 mhz.

These will allow a third player to viably operate a mobile and broadband business in the country.

A new player will require  huge capital , and would have to get a joint venture partner and craft a strategic plan to be able to compete with the two profitable telecom players.

Now  is currently offering cable, broadband and IT services for enterprises clients .

The company is also offering a broadband services in a niche market such as   building owners and enterprise clients.

The broadband services with 700 megabits per second speed is currently available in selected cities in Metro Manila.

Now  uses  a shared-revenues concept where the building owner will have to  infuse investment on the fiber and bandwidth and gets a commission of from 5 percent to 50 percent depending on the sale of the
services .

“We will launch this September ,”  Velarde said

This year, the broadband service is available in  Metro Manila, but in the first quarter next year it will be expanded in Souther Luzon, Davao, and Cebu .

For this year the company has allocated $30 million investment for broadband.

Source : http://www.malaya.com.ph/business-news/business/now-vies-be-third-telco