i.t. matters
Wednesday March 08, 2006 |
News
BY MARICEL E. ESTAVILLO, Reporter
Globe, PLDT firms’ WiFi rivalry heating up
Two coffee shops inside the
The rivalry between the country’s top two providers of WiFi, Airborne Access and GlobeQUEST, appears to be heating up, signaling that WiFI or wireless fidelity could be the next battleground for Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) and Globe Telecom, Inc., which are the respective partners of the two providers.
WiFi, or 801.11b, is a technology that lets users surf the internet via wireless connection through access points called hotspots, using notebook computers, personal digital assistants and other portable devices.
ePLDT, the information technology arm of PLDT, has a 51% stake in Airborne Access, while GlobeQUEST is the corporate voice and data arm of Innove Communications, Inc., the wholly owned unit of Ayala-led Globe, handling fixed-line and data businesses.
In an interview with BusinessWorld, Jesus C.Romero, GlobeQuest head, said that indeed
"It is true, but that is not only for the Ayala Mall. There are also a lot of hotspots that are exclusive to GlobeQuest, where we have an exclusive arrangement [with the shop owners] and we are the only one allowed to provide the WiFi service," Mr. Romero said.
Additional details, he said, are privileged information.
As of end-2005,
Letters sent to the establishments calling for the termination of the Airborne WiFi service started to come in early last year.
From the present 200 hotspots, Mr. Romero said GlobeQUEST targets to double the number by end-2006. GlobeQUEST is also working with a number of international aggregators to further expand its coverage abroad.
"The idea here is that WiFi is now a utility for a variety of services. Before, it is only used to access e-mails, now we are using it for telephone calls," Mr. Romero said.
Last week, GlobeQUEST launched its web phone service that uses traditional telephone prepaid cards to make calls. But instead of the regular telephone, calls are routed from internet-enabled desktop or WiFI-enabled laptop computer or a personal digital assistant (PDA).
The launch came a day after Airborne announced that it will deploy 10 Waypoint internet portals this year. These are internet and audio-visual kiosks that will be placed in high-traffic locations such as malls so that users can immediately make video calls and access rich content and internet, while outside their offices or homes.
Airborne, which started commercial operations ahead of GlobeQUEST in 2002, has deployed 270 hotspots in 35 cities and 12 provinces.
Similar to GlobeQUEST, Airborne also targets to widen scope to 500 hotspots, including growing footprints in Visayas and
For Jay Fajardo, Airborne president, WiFi is already an established source of revenues for any business, particularly for telecommunication providers while the much-hyped third-generation service or 3G is yet to take off.
For instance, the Lopez-led Bayan Telecommunications, Inc. (BayanTel) has decided to partner with Airborne so that it can also venture into WiFi, instead of deploying its own network, Mr. Fajardo said.
Under this deal, BayanTel will sell WiFi service riding on Airborne’s existing hotspots.
And unlike before, commercial establishments, particularly coffee shops are now the ones calling providers to have their facilities deployed with WiFi as value-added offer to their customers.
"Now, they are the ones calling us. And a big percentage of our hotspot deployment is being paid by them. Most of the time we don’t have an initial investment," Mr. Fajardo said.
Going forward, demand comes not only from the enterprise or companies but more so from the consumer side, homeowners and students.
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