26 March 2015 – Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) continues to expand its global reach as it launched its U.S. East Coast Point of Presence (POP) at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City on March19. The event celebrated the growth of the PLDT in the US and sought to promote the company’s programs of global expansion and networking through the increase of the products, assets, services, and geographical reach of its current offerings, as well as its main objective of delivering relevant products and services to assure its clientele of the best business activities.
Philippine Consul General Mario De Leon was present in the event to give his congratulations to PLDT and address prospective business and individual clients. He noted that PLDT is not new to New York, being the only Filipino company trading in the New York Stock Exchange.
The Consul General acknowledged the importance of PLDT’s international presence, firstly for overseas Filipinos – and in particular the 3.5 million US-based Filipinos across the 50 states – for making local telecommunication service accessible to the modern-day heroes. He highlighted the positive economic performance of the Philippines as reported by international agencies such as being named by Bloomberg Business as the Second Fastest Growing Economy in the World and International Monetary Fund’s prediction of an even higher economic growth of 6.3% by the end of 2015. He also mentioned that the progress the country is experiencing is fueled in part by Public-Private Partnership in infrastructure, communications and utility projects of the government and corporations like PLDT. Lastly, he conveyed Philippine Ambassador to the US Jose Cuisia’s message of thanks to PLDT and their Chairman Manny V. Pangilinan for being a partner of the Embassy and the Consulates in promoting business and industry in the Philippines, for being a staunch supporter of the US-Philippine Society, and for being a pillar of the telecom industry, which powers Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), a major revenue earner for the country.
The Points of Presence presentations on the international and U.S. business operations and services of PLDT were given by Mr. Ernesto Alberto, Executive Vice President, PLDT Group, and Head, Enterprise and International and Carrier Business; Mr. Jovy Hernandez, First VP and Head, PLDT Alpha Enterprise and SMART Groups; and Mr. Richard Ortega, Managing Director of PLDT United States.
The product offering of PLDT in their international POPs are two-pronged: Mobility (for individual clients) and Enterprise (for corporate market). In terms of Mobility, their target clients are the overseas Filipinos; where along with their US partner T-Mobile, will allow clients to exchange calls and texts with their families and friends in the Philippines for local airtime costs because of their dual-numbered sim cards. For their Enterprise operations, they are marketing mainly to the BPO companies. They consider the US as an important Enterprise market because of the sizable presence of BPOs in the Philippines: 80% of BPOs are US companies, and the BPOs are a $20 billion industry in the Philippines, employing 1 million Filipinos.
PLDT has plans to increase their assets and products to the international markets by utilizing their portfolio and making services such as healthcare, entertainment and news available to their mobile clients. END