NOW Telecom Corp. formerly Next Mobile Inc. spending $28M for cellular site rollout, 'unli' text offering

[ong76win2]

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NOW spending $28M for cellular site rollout, 'unli' text offering

By: Darwin G. Amojelar, InterAksyon.com
June 9, 2014 10:21 PM

MANILA - A new player in the telecom business plans to offer unlimited text per day for as low as P3, adopting the business model of Sun Cellular.

In a briefing today, NOW Corp president Mel Velasco Velerde told reporters that its subsidiary NOW Telecom Co, formerly Next Mobile Inc, plans to spend $28 million over the next two years to roll out cell sites in Metro Manila.

NOW, formerly Information Capital Technology Ventures Inc (ICTV), owns 19 percent of NOW Telecom.

Velarde said the company also plans to expand outside Metro Manila. "The beauty in Metro Manila is that we need only less than 150 cell sites for text alone," he said.

"We are really following the disruptive business model of Digitel when they started voice and text," Velarde said, referring to Digital Mobile Philippines Inc, the parent firm of Sun Cellular, which pioneered the “unlimited” text and voice services in the country.

"We are not targeting 100 percent or 50 percent of the market. The strategy is to get at least 2 percent to 5 percent or even less than 1 percent you're are still profitable," Velarde said, adding that the company targets 2.9 million subscribers and P1.6 billion in revenues after five years of operation.

He said the company will use the mobile cellular license of Next Mobile for the rollout of its text messaging service.

Velarde said NOW Telecom will spend $20 million over two years to roll out its broadband service in Metro Manila, targeting households and enterprises.

The company targets 850,000 broadband subscribers and P8.36 billion in revenues on its fifth year of operations.

"We are looking at various options to raise $48 million capex over two years. One would be raising shares in the market or through borrowing or maybe some hybrid facility," Velarde said.

He said NOW expects to post a net income of P1.97 billion this year from the loss of P15.87 million in 2013. Revenue is projected to reach P116.05 million this year from last year's P30.11 million.

Source: NOW spending $28M for cellular site rollout, 'unli' text offering

[The Rocker]

Spending big for rolllout. Become somewhat of a minor telecom player then after a few years sellout to globe or smart.

[cloudduster]

Why are we not funding this?

[b1 huck]

let's wait and see...

[Gjhone]

buy out ra gihapon ang labas ani....pasangil lng nga mag merge..

but hopefully dili..

[raissah]

I hope modaku ni sila para naa nay kompetensya ning duha ka dagkog ulo.

[Vino Kid]

ang pangutana, naa pa bay available frequency sa GSM ug sa microwave transmission?

[ExtraHot]

hahaha... ma pareha ra ni sa red mobile.... faet!!! we are just manipulated by only 1 company in this country!!!!!!!!!!

[NapoleonBlownapart]

patambokon ra ning kompanyaha unya ig katambok kan-on ni sa dakong buaya..

[spartan301]

Given that about 50% of the 2b would probably be raised through the market, lets wait on the stock analyst comments and investor reactions will be on their IPO (initial public offering)... If overbought just like double dragon when they made their IPO with analyst comments of buy, sounds like we have a new player... However, in my own opinion, we can not compare this said company with Digitel (sun) considering the latter is owned by Gokongwei who already had deeply entrenched businesses in the market

Important note thou is that d news mentioned about 3 banks interested in financing their investments... Basically, it means, they're in for the long haul.. Again, lets wait on the insider scoop on this...

Basing on their statement of capturing about 1% to 2% of the market basically states, they wont be a threat in the next 6 to 7 years with the 2 giants.. So a buy-out or merger wont make sense anytime soon...