PLDT completes acquisition of Digitel

Manila, Philippines : 26 October 2011 - The Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company ("PLDT") (NYSE: PLDT) (PSE: TEL) and JG Summit Holdings, Inc. ("JG Summit") (PSE: JGS) jointly announce that PLDT has successfully completed the acquisition of a majority interest in Digital Telecommunications Philippines, Inc. ("Digitel") (PSE: DGTL) from JG Summit and other shareholders of Digitel, in a landmark share swap transaction valued at about P69.2 billion.

Together with 3.277 billion shares representing 51.55% of Digitel’s outstanding common stock, PLDT also acquired the zero-coupon bonds issued by Digitel Group to JG Summit, which were assumed to be convertible or exchangeable into 18.6 billion Digitel shares, and assumed P34.1 billion in advances made by JG Summit to Digitel Group (collectively, the "Enterprise Assets"). As payment for the Enterprise Assets, PLDT issued 27,679,210 new shares of common stock at the issue price of P2,500 per PLDT share. As a result, the JG Summit Group presently holds approximately 12.9% of PLDT’s expanded outstanding common stock.

DBS, EZ-Link and StarHub to roll out Near Field Communication Mobile Services by 2012

DBS, EZ-Link and StarHub to roll out Near Field Communication Mobile Services by 2012

Singapore, 25 October 2011 – Come 2012, the sight of consumers tapping their mobile devices to pay for shopping purchases, transport trips, and other contactless services, could soon be a norm here when StarHub, EZ-Link and DBS launch Near Field Communication (NFC) services.

The three companies are part of the consortium which received IDA’s NFC Call for Collaboration (CFC) award to develop an interoperable mobile NFC infrastructure and mobile payment services in Singapore. As pioneers that trial tested the latest NFC mobile payment services in Singapore, DBS, EZ-Link and StarHub are well-positioned to provide a secure and seamless NFC mobile payment services to customers by mid 2012.

More than 1,000 participants tried the NFC services during a recent trial, jointly organised by DBS, EZ-Link, Gemalto, MasterCard and StarHub. The trial was well-received by participants who expressed excitement over the prospects of the services. Gaining insights from the trial, NFC services will be fine-tuned to bring greater benefits as well as convenience to consumers and merchants when officially launched.

Apart from continuing close partnership to offer more NFC-enabled applications, DBS, EZ-Link and StarHub will also work closely with other members of the consortium to develop a vibrant NFC ecosystem in Singapore.

Using NFC devices like a ubiquitous mobile wallet, customers can not only make payment but also access lifestyle services on a single interface. They can purchase tickets, receive the latest news, discounts and promotions from retailers with just a simple tap. In addition, consumers can “social network” on the move when they share their discoveries with their friends by tapping on each other’s NFC mobile devices.

To ease the adoption of the NFC technology, StarHub will offer NFC mobile devices to customers. StarHub will also look for more payment and service partners to collaborate on unique services that simplify and enhance StarHub Mobile customers’ lives at work, at home, and for leisure.

“StarHub is proud to provide innovative mobile payment services for our customers as we strongly believe in offering the best solutions and unique experiences for our customers. With the launch of the NFC, our mobile customers will enjoy a highly engaging and convenient experience as they use their NFC enabled mobile handsets for contactless services such as transit, shopping, ticketing, social sharing, and much more. With such attractive features, we expect more customers to embrace the NFC services that simplify and enhance their lifestyle,” says Ms Yeong Mun Ling, StarHub’s Vice President of Business Strategy.

NFC will form an integral part of DBS’ suite of mobile offerings and enhance the comprehensive card experience enjoyed by its customers. A leading player in the mobile banking space, DBS is the first acquirer to enable contactless payment through a single reader accepting PayPass, payWave, and CEPAS. With already over 6,000 contactless acceptance points for transport, shopping and dining, DBS will work closely with consortium members and its merchants partners to realise NFC’s full potential and to promote cashless payment in Singapore.

“Advancements in mobile technology and the adoption of smart devices over the recent years have had a major influence on the consumer’s lifestyle. With over 330,000 customers using mBanking as well as more than 300,000 downloads for DBS Indulge and DBS Shopper, we have the largest mobile banking customer base in Singapore. As part of our continuous innovation, we are proud to add NFC to our comprehensive suite of mobile banking solutions that includes online banking, protection, rewards and payment. The NFC-enabled mobile will further enhance our customers’ purchase experience and bring cashless payment in Singapore to a new level,” says Mr Sim S. Lim, Country Manager of DBS Singapore

EZ-Link will be offering the TTP with a contactless stored value e-purse infrastructure that will facilitate and allow the functions of an ez-link card to be embedded into an NFC-enabled handset and utilized across all existing and new ez-link acceptance points.

“EZ-Link is happy to be working with DBS and StarHub towards introducing a NFC-enabled solution to our consumers as we believe that, by combining the mobile phone, NFC mobile payment and the ez-link purse, we are creating a powerful proposition for Singaporeans, adding a combination of innovation and convenience to their lifestyles,” says Mr Nicholas Lee, CEO of EZ-Link Pte Ltd.

StarHub to Offer iPhone 4S in Singapore on 28 October

Singapore, 26 October 2011 – StarHub today announced it will offer iPhone 4S to customers in Singapore from Friday, 28 October. iPhone 4S will be available starting at $0 for the 16GB model, $0 for the 32GB model and $128 for the 64GB model from StarHub retail stores. iPhone 4 8GB will be available for $0 on selected plans.

iPhone 4S is the most amazing iPhone yet, packed with incredible new features including Apple’s dual-core A5 chip for blazing fast performance and stunning graphics; an all new camera with advanced optics; full 1080p HD resolution video recording; and Siri, an intelligent assistant that helps you get things done just by asking. With the launch of iPhone 4S also comes the launch of iOS 5, the world’s most advanced mobile operating system with over 200 new features; and iCloud, a breakthrough set of free cloud services that work with your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac or PC to automatically and wirelessly store your content in iCloud and push it to all your devices.

"We are pleased to offer iPhone 4S in Singapore. We believe that our customers will be thrilled by the exciting new features delivered by this iPhone model," said Mr Ng Long Shyang, Head of Sales and Marketing at StarHub. "Powered by StarHub’s nationwide advanced mobile broadband network and with the generous 12GB bundled data on our 3G SmartSurf packages, iPhone 4S offers an outstanding mobile experience that our customers will enjoy."

StarHub currently offers four 3G SmartSurf price plans. All these plans come with StarHub’s iconic mobile features including all-day unlimited free incoming voice calls, per-second billing, 100 free SMS with GIRO bill payment and free StarHub IDD 018 calls to 18 destinations for $5 monthly. In addition, local data usage charges are capped at $30 monthly so mobile users have total peace of mind when they go online. Those customers on our Student/NSF plans also get to enjoy unlimited SMS/MMS.

China Mobile and iPass Partner to Deliver Wi-Fi Exchange Services

HONG KONG, October 25, 2011 – China Mobile and iPass Inc. (NASDAQ: IPAS) today announced that iPass Open Mobile Exchange (OMX) will provide the foundation for a new data roaming service for subscribers of China Mobile’s international service provider partners, as well China Mobile’s local users.

Through the new Wi-Fi exchange services, iPass OMX will serve as a central hub through which China Mobile’s international roaming partners are provided with access to the China Mobile Wi-Fi network. It will also support China Mobile’s international data roaming needs by providing access for China Mobile users travelling abroad.

“Smartphones and tablets are putting onerous demands on cellular networks,” said Wang Jianzhou CEO of China Mobile. “Building out our Wi-Fi network is the fastest way for us to meet the increasing Web demand by our smartphone and tablet users and by partnering with iPass we can rapidly make our Wi-Fi network seamlessly available to our international partners and their users roaming in China.”

“China Mobile has one of the fastest growing Wi-Fi networks in the world, and access to this network is essential for anyone traveling in China,” said Evan Kaplan, president and CEO of iPass. “China Mobile selected iPass Open Mobile Exchange so it can deliver Wi-Fi exchange services that enable its partner carriers worldwide to quickly connect users to Wi-Fi networks throughout China with one billing relationship. Today’s announcement is a validation of our global Wi-Fi vision.”

StarHub offers new multi-SIM mobile plan for smartphone and tablet users

StarHub offers new multi-SIM mobile plan for smartphone and tablet users

Singapore, 20 October 2011 – Recognizing that more StarHub customers are using two or more mobile devices to make calls, surf the internet and use mobile applications simultaneously, StarHub has specially designed a new mobile plan to meet their unique lifestyle needs.

The new i2Surf mobile plan, to be launched in October 28, comes bundled with a free multi-SIM, and will give instant voice and data accessibility for customers who own two devices. Subscribers of the new i2Surf mobile plans will receive two SIM cards(regular or micro SIM cards), and enjoy 24 months of free multi-SIM subscription (worth $240) which they can use over their second handset device or over their tablet or dongle. They can choose from three types of i2Surfmobile plan – i2Surf 100, i2Surf 300 and i2Surf 700 – that best suit their lifestyle.

Grameenphone Ltd. (GP) reported BDT 2,283 crore revenues for the third quarter of 2011

GP kept the growth momentum with 3.5 crore customers

Grameenphone Ltd. (GP) reported BDT 2,283 crore revenues for the third quarter of 2011, a strong 18% and BDT 349 crore increase from the corresponding period of 2010. Compared to the high growth performance in the second quarter of 2011, GP recorded BDT 9.5 crore incremental revenues. The year on year revenue growth mainly came through contribution from subscription and traffic revenues fuelled by steady subscription growth and contributions from data, roaming and wholesale businesses.

“I am happy to inform our Honourable Shareholders that the company has been able to uplift the business growth momentum even in a daunting regulatory environment”, said Tore Johnsen, CEO of GP. He also noted that GP, as a company, stayed put and did not lose focus on delivering the best telecommunication services towards the remotest corner of the country as well as creating maximum value for shareholders’ money.

Towards the commitment of further expanding the rural horizon, GP has managed to add 32 thousand more retailers into its robust distribution network during the quarter taking the total retail outlets close to 300,000. Capitalizing on this reinforcement, 14 lakh new subscriptions were added, posting a growth of 23% from the same period of 2010. GP’s subscription base now stands at 3.52 crores with approximately 44% market share.

Net profit after taxes for the third quarter of 2011 was BDT 563 crores with 24.7% margin compared to BDT 291 crores with 15.0% margin of the third quarter of 2010. Higher profit for this period was mainly due to consistent revenue growth and improvement in relative performance in cost areas, which was partly offset by higher income tax expenses. EBITDA margin for the third quarter of 2011 was 57.8%, which also has increased by 5.9 percentage points compared to the third quarter of 2010.

As a result, Earnings per share (EPS) for the third quarter of 2011 stood at BDT 4.17 compared to BDT 2.15 of the same period of 2010. For the first nine months of 2011, EPS was BDT 9.18 compared to BDT 5.73 for the same period of 2010.

GP invested BDT 449 crores during the third quarter of 2011 for network modernization, capacity and quality enhancement. With this, GP’s cumulative investment since inception now stands at BDT 16,797 crores. Meanwhile, GP, the largest taxpayer of the country, paid BDT 1,308 crores to the national exchequer during the third quarter of 2011 in the form of taxes, VAT and duties, which sums up the accumulated contribution to the national exchequer to BDT 22,153 crores since its inception.

Grameenphone has submitted its application for renewal of 2G license in the prescribed form along with necessary documents on 10 October 2011. The submission was done following the final regulatory and licensing guidelines of cellular mobile phone operator license published by Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) on 11 September 2011.

Grameenphone has received a claim of BDT 30.34 billion from Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (BTRC) referring to findings of the audit that the regulator carried out during the last few months starting from April 2011. Grameenphone has, during and after the audit, through discussion and formal letters, contended and clarified to BTRC and the auditor that the acceptable audit norms and practices have not been followed during and after the audit and the claims made remains unfounded, unsubstantiated and without merit. Telenor share Grameenphone’s view that the claims are unsubstantiated and expects that the licence renewal process will run unaffected by this dispute.

M1 to launch iPhone 4S on 28 October

SINGAPORE, 22 October 2011 - M1 today announced that it will offer the iPhone 4S in Singapore on 28 October, Friday. iPhone 4S will be available starting at $505 for the 16GB model, $630 for the 32GB model and $770 for the 64GB model. Customers can select from a range of four iPhone tariff plans, with monthly subscriptions starting from as low as $36.

iPhone 4S is the most amazing iPhone yet, packed with incredible new features including Apple’s dual-core A5 chip for blazing fast performance and stunning graphics; an all new camera with advanced optics and full 1080p HD resolution video recording. With the launch of iPhone 4S also comes the launch of iOS 5, the world’s most advanced mobile operating system with over 200 new features; and iCloud, a breakthrough set of free cloud services that work with your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac or PC to automatically and wirelessly store your content in iCloud and push it to all your devices.

“We are excited to introduce the amazing new iPhone 4S on M1’s advanced mobile network," said P. Subramaniam, Chief Marketing Officer, M1 Limited. "Our customers will now enjoy an even better experience with download speeds of up to 14.4Mbps when they subscribe to M1’s unbeatable iPhone tariff plans.”

M1 will celebrate the iPhone 4S launch at midnight on 28 October at its Paragon flagship store. Customers may also obtain iPhone 4S from 7:00am on 28 October at M1 retail shops at Bugis Junction, Change Alley, IMM, Tampines, Plaza Singapura and West Mall, as well as at selected exclusive dealer shops at Ang Mo Kio Hub, Sun Plaza, Jurong Point and Toa Payoh Blk 190. iPhone 4S will also be available online at m1.shop.com.sg.