PLDT Global, the international arm of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT), expects its revenue to demonstrate double-digit growth in 2014, chiefly driven by its newly-launched mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) service in the United States; in 2013 PLDT Global reported sales of USD50 million. Citing a media briefing in Hong Kong, online journal InterAksyon quotes PLDT Global president Alexander Caeg as saying: ‘The US is a very important market for us. It has a total of 3.4 million Filipinos’.
The US MVNO, named SMART World Mobile, was launched in association with network operator T-Mobile US last month, initially serving Los Angeles, San Francisco, Honolulu, San Diego and Las Vegas. The virtual operator has already notched up 10,000 subscribers, and the likes of New York and New Jersey are next in line for launch, albeit not until 2015. After that, PLDT Global plans to extend its MVNO model to Spain and the Middle East.
PLDT Global already offers MVNO services in Hong Kong, Singapore, Guam, Malaysia, Macau, Taiwan and the United Kingdom, and boasts a virtual subscriber base of more than 250,000 customers worldwide.