Mr. Albert Villa-Real of PLDT Global (left) and Mr. Tim Chiang of Chief Telecom (right) sign the contract on behalf of both parties.
With ambition to conquer the global market, Taiwan-based Chief Telecom (TWSE: 6561) officially announced today that it will form a partnership with PLDT Global Corporation (PGC), the international arm of PLDT (NYSE: PHI). On a mutually beneficial basis, Chief Telecom and PLDT Global will provide one-stop-shop solutions to their customers, with services ranging from local IDC (Internet Data Center) to network.
Joseph Wu, Chairman of Chief Telecom, indicated that the alliance with PLDT Global would be the start of entering the 10 ASEAN markets, and it would also be the key to Chief Telecom’s goal of becoming the telecom hub of east Asia and the center of cloud business applications.
PGC’s parent company PLDT is the Philippines’ largest integrated telecommunications company, and together with its wireless unit Smart Communications, is considered a telco and technology leader and trailblazer in the country. PLDT’s fiber infrastructure, the Philippines’ most extensive at 429,000 kilometers as of end-2020, also supports Smart’s mobile networks, which is the country’s fastest mobile network, according to third-party analytics firm Ookla. Smart’s mobile network covers 96% of the population and offers the most extensive 4G coverage in the Philippines.
The population of the Philippines is currently around 108 million people, with the median age standing at 24 years; income per capita is around 3,330 US dollars, and the GDP last year was approximately 362.24 billion US dollars.
Chairman Wu also commented that PLDT Global provides high-quality communication infrastructure and innovative cloud application services platform, which is exactly the type of partner Chief Telecom wants to work with when selecting its alliance partners.
Chairman Wu further pointed out that as the consequence of the trade war between the US and China, there have been industry chain migrations from China to other ASEAN countries carried out by both both multinational companies and Taiwanese enterprises. The Philippines is one of the top-rated choices among alternative destinations. With the alliance formed, Chief Telecom and PLDT Global both hope that the partnership will keep growing strong based on the rich experiences of providing IDC and network services of each party. Customers of both will benefit from the solutions provided through the alliance. For example, Taiwanese enterprises, will be able to enjoy the complete solutions within SEA provided by Chief Telecom, and extend their business reach as well as strengthen their global competitiveness.
“The global demand for faster, more secure, and more reliable connectivity has grown at an unprecedented scale, especially as more businesses are transforming digitally. Through this partnership with Chief Telecom, we can deliver solutions that address the technological needs of our customers powering their digital expansion beyond borders,” said Albert V. Villa-Real, Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer at PLDT Global.
As revealed by Chairman Wu, the alliance project of 10 ASEAN countries has been taking shape for a long time, and the alliance with PLDT Global is just the start. Chief Telecom is continuously looking for alliance partners with great capabilities to cooperate with and expand its service coverages of telecommunications, network and IDC and in turn accelerate its business growth.
