Telco giant turns to China’s Huawei to improve service

PLDT Inc. and its mobile unit Smart Communications Inc. have entered into a $28.5-million partnership deal with China's information and communications technology firm Huawei.

The deal call for Huawei is to help the PLDT Group transform its wireless service delivery platforms, the group said on Tuesday.

The partnership with Huawei is part of the group’s massive capital expenditure program to overhaul its fixed and wireless networks infrastructure and its information technology systems, which is expected to exceed P 50 billion in 2018, PLDT said in a regulatory filing signed by Ma. Lourdes Rausa-Chan, senior vice president and corporate secretary at PLDT.

Huawei is a global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider.

“This partnership will enable PLDT Group’s wireless services under the brands PLDT, Smart, Sun and TNT to become much more agile, efficient and resilient in developing and delivering a growing array of digital services,” PLDT chairman and CEO Manuel Pangilinan said.

Under the 15-month agreement, Huawei will improve Smart’s online charging platforms and electronic loading for prepaid subscribers.

It's basically having more efficient network operations and maintenance, PLDT-Smart Public Affairs Group head Ramon Isberto told GMA News Online. “Currently we have three different platforms for Smart, TNT, and Sun. This will make it more efficient because everything will be managed under one platform, making it simple,” he said.

This involves consolidating similar applications for different brands under one system and streamlining business processes through a unified platform and simplified processes, PLDT Group chief corporate services officer Ray Espinosa said.

Once the ICT solutions are in place, PLDT, Smart, Sun and TNT wireless services will also be able to offer bundled services more quickly and efficiently— significantly improving customer experience.