PLDT’s digital shift goes to Japan

TOKYO—The overseas arm of Philippine telecom giant PLDT Corp. has teamed up with NTT Communications to roll out in Japan a pioneering Filipino community-centric mobile broadband business with voice call, texting and remittance services as sweeteners.

In a press briefing here on Friday night, PLDT Global president Alejandro Caeg unveiled Smart World Japan, an all-digital mobile virtual network operator that would ride on the telecom platform of NTT Docomo and brings the PLDT group’s digital pivot to an overseas market.

“We have been studying the market very well, understanding our local market of 240,000 [Japan-based] Filipinos, understanding their needs and wants in the digital space. They are different from Filipinos we find in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan or Guam,” Caeg said, noting Filipinos in Japan were heavy consumers of digital content.

PLDT Global chose Japan for its first mobile venture also because of the influx of Filipino tourists here, a result of Japan’s liberalization of visa and travel restrictions, he added.

“This is really a milestone for us. Smart and PLDT have not just rebranded on the outside. Our heart is on the digital pivot,” said PLDT vice president and group head for global operations John Palanca.

NTT Docomo, the leading mobile phone operator in Japan, is also a strategic investor in PLDT with a 20 percent interest.

Smart World empowers the digital lifestyle though a mobile data SIM bundled with a pocket Wi-Fi through a monthly prepaid subscription.

Customers are also given free remittance transactions of up to JPY 100,000 per month plus an allowance for free calls and text messages to the Philippines, Brazil, UK, United States , Canada, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, China, South Korea Thailand and Vietnam.