PHILIPPINE LONG DISTANCE TELEPHONE COMPANY

The 'Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company' (, ), commonly known as 'PLDT', is the largest telecommunications company in the Philippines.

Contents

History

Subsidiaries and affiliates

Wireless

Products

Services

Philippine area code assignment

Ownership

Competition

Sports

Hello Garci Controversy

External links

Complaints

Official

References

History

The Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) was incorporated under the old Corporation Law of the Philippines (Act 1459, as amended) on November 29, 1928, following the merger of four telephone companies under common US ownership. In 1967, effective control of PLDT was sold by General Telephone and Electronics Corporation (a major stockholder since PLDT's incorporation) to a group of Filipino businessmen.
On July 18, 1968, Pilipino Telephone Corporation (Piltel) was incorporated in the Philippines with limited liability. Piltel's sole business at that time was providing fixed line telecommunications services in eight cities and municipalities in the Philippines.
In 1981, in furtherance of the then existing policy of the Philippine government to integrate the Philippine telecommunications industry, PLDT purchased substantially all of the assets and liabilities of Republic Telephone Company.
In 1991, Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart) was incorporated. Smart's major shareholders at that time were certain Philippine and other affiliates of First Pacific Company Limited (collectively, the "First Pacific Group") and NTT Communications Capital (UK) Limited ("NTTC-UK"), which in the aggregate owned 96.7% of Smart. In the same year, Piltel launched its cellular telephone services using Advanced Mobile Phone System ("AMPS") technology, which was subsequently upgraded to Digital Advanced Mobile Phone System ("D-AMPS") technology.
In 1993, Piltel launched its paging services. In 1997, Piltel introduced digital cellular services using Code Digital Multiple Access ("CDMA") technology.
On March 24, 2000, PLDT completed its share-swap acquisition of Smart, making Smart a 100%-owned PLDT subsidiary. In April 2000, Piltel launched a digital prepaid cellular service using the Global System for Mobile Communications ("GSM") platform of Smart. A few years later, PLDT transferred its ownership of Piltel to Smart, thereby consolidating all of PLDT's wireless operations under Smart.

Subsidiaries and affiliates

PLDT is divided into the following subsidiaries and affiliates, which are divided by the categories PLDT divides itself by.
The following are PLDT's subsidiaries and affiliates:
'Fixed-Line:'

★ Clark Telecom

★ Subic Telecom

★ Smart-NTT Multimedia

★ PLDT Global

★
★ PLDT US

★
★ PLDT US Retail

★
★ PLDT UK

★
★ PLDT HK

★
★ PLDT HK 1528

★
★ PLDT HK Ltd

★
★ PLDT SG

★
★ PLDT SG Retail Services

★ Maranao Telephone
'Wireless:'

★ Smart Communications

★
★ Pilipino Telephone

★
★ Smart Money Holdings Corporation

★
★ i-Contacts Corporation

★ Telesat

★ ACeS Philippines

★ Mabuhay Satellite
'Information and Communications Technology:'

★ ePLDT

★
★ SPi

★
★ Infocom Technologies

★
★ mySecureSign

★
★ Vocativ Systems

★
★ Parlance Systems

★
★ iPlus Intelligent Network

★
★ Digital Paradise

★
★ Stradcom International Holdings

★
★ BayanTrade Dotcom

Wireless

'Smart Communications', Inc. commonly known as '"SMART"', is the wholly-owned mobile phone subsidiary of PLDT. With over 25 million subscribers on its GSM network as of end-February 2007, equivalent to approximately 58 percent market share. It operates a nationwide cellular network and a satellite phone service. It also has the most extensive and modern digital communications GSM network and infrastructure in the country, covering over 99 percent of the population. As of end-June 2006, Smart’s GSM network consists of 36 switches and 6,065 base stations, over 2,200 of which are equipped with wireless broadband capability. Smart also has over 1,000 3G base stations nationwide.

Products

Smart offers different levels of service, dependent on both the population and the financial capability of the subscriber. A list is provided below.

Logo	Service	Description
	Smart Gold	Postpaid Plan
	Smart Infinity	Premium High-End postpaid service
	Smart Buddy	Prepaid Service
	Smart Kid	Kids' mobile service in prepaid and postpaid
	Talk N' Text	Low rate Prepaid Sim Card
	Smart Link	Calling through Satellite receivers
	Smart ACeS	The Same with smart Link
	SmarTalk	Payphone with Texts features from smart
	Addict Mobile	Special Mobile for older teens

Services

Logo	Services	Description
The Smart 3G Logo	SMART 3G	Smart 3G UMTS network ★ ★ Video Calls ★ ★ Video Streaming with a combination of access and per minute charges ★ ★ High-speed Internet Browsing
The Smart ZED Logo	SMART Zed	Multi-platform infotainment products and services, offers people on the move,access entertainment, communication and information services. include games, messaging services and stock prices.
	SMART Money	It's a cashless base transaction in a reloadable cash card linked to the MasterCard network.
	SMART Padala	It's a cash remittance service via text, from a sender abroad to the celfone of a beneficiary here in Philippines
	SMART Bro	Direct-To-Home Wifi from smart towers. Smart is currently offering 1 residential plan, "Plan 999", which advertises a maxumium speed of 384 kbit/s. Smart also released an Enterprise package which will give a maximun speed of 4 Mbit/s. The service integrates Motorola's Canopy Technology

Philippine area code assignment

Smart Communications Shares the same prefixes of Talk N' Text 910, 912, 918, 919, 920, 921 and 928.

Ownership

★ First Pacific: 31%

★ Nippon Telegraph and Telephone: 15%

★ Fidelity Investments: 5%

★ Other owners (includes public stock): 49%

Competition

PLDT's main competitors are Globe Telecom and Digitel in both the fixed-line and mobile (via Smart's competition with Globe and SunCellular) markets. Bayan Communications (also known as BayanTel) is also a major fixed-line competitor of PLDT.

Sports

PLDT, through its Pilipino Telephone subsidiary, owns the Talk 'N Text Phone Pals of the Philippine Basketball Association. It previously owned, via a partnership with its Smart Telecommunications subsidiary and the Ateneo de Manila University (of which Panginilan is an alumnus), the Addict Mobile-Ateneo basketball team of the Philippine Basketball League.

Hello Garci Controversy

An insider of Smart Communications worked with the Isafp in wiretapping political leaders during the 2004 elections, and Smart admitted it was possible that an employee coordinated with Isafp. Vidal Doble said 2 of his former superiors at the "''Project Lighthouse''" operation – Col. Paul Sumayo and Capt. Frederick Rebong – "''coordinated''" with a "''recruit''" and contact inside Smart. Ramon Isberto of Smart, said - "''This first came out two to three years ago. The company has not participated in any efforts to monitor conversations.''" Speechless wiretappers: Doble said he and everybody else involved in "Project Lighthouse" were shocked to hear President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo speak with former Virgilio Garcillano about the rigging of poll results. Doble said "Project Lighthouse" had 14 members divided into 4 teams - "''All of the teams knew about the conversation of PGMA (Arroyo) and commissioner Garcillano''." Doble revealed those who gave the order to launch "Project Lighthouse": Western Command (Wescom) chief Vice Admiral Tirso Danga, former deputy chief of staff for intelligence; Brigadier Gen. Marlou Quevedo, former Isafp chief; Army Col. Allen Capuyan, former head of the Isafp's special operations group; and "''down the line''" the project "''group commander''" Col. Sumayo; Capt. Rebong; and Capt. Lindsay Rex Sagge.^[1]

External links

Complaints

★ A review on Smart Communications service

★ Pasaload Complaint from a user

★ TxtPower Complaint for Smart Bro, Smart Wifi

★ Smart Subscribers have most complaints-NTC

★ Comsumer complaint to NTC to stop Smart Bro wireless Internet

★ Smart Wifi Subscribers unite to email-flood NTC

Official

★ PLDT website

★ Smart Communications website

★ Yahoo! - Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company Company Profile

★ Philippine Stock Market Forum of Finance Manila

★ Smart 3G speed tests

References

1. GMA NEWS.TV, Doble's ‘Hello Garci’ wiretap ops done through Smart mole