Asia’s MVNOs are aiming their services at specific niche market segments in order to stay competitive with their larger mass-market rivals.
Philippines’ PLDT, which owns the country’s largest mobile carrier SMART, is running various MVNO operations in overseas markets under its subsidiary PLDT Global, with services tailored toward migrant Filipino workers. The firm launched MVNO units branded ‘SMART Pinoy’ in Hong Kong and Singapore in 2004 and 2006 respectively, in conjunction with local carriers CSL and M1.
SMART Pinoy targets Hong Kong’s Filipino workers, which mostly work as domestic helpers, by offering attractive remittance and SMS rates. SMART Pinoy’s m-commerce platform, launched in 2006 allows subscribers to load money into their phones and send sums to relatives in the Philippines. According to PLDT Hong Kong’s general manager John Gregory Palanca, each m-commerce transaction costs subscribers HK$1 ($0.13), a great deal below the average HK$25 fee charged by other remittance services.
The MVNO took into account the relatively low salaries of domestic helpers and allowed top-ups in incremental values of HK$10, HK$20 or HK$30 instead of the usual HK$50 or HK$100 denominations set by other carriers.
SMART Pinoy also centered on lowering indirect SMS costs for subscribers who communicated with friends and relatives in the Philippines through SMS. Direct international SMS rates of around $0.25 from Hong Kong to the Philippines could not be changed due to charges set by the MNO, but SMART Pinoy launched a multi-line service so subscribers in Hong Kong or Singapore could have their local SIM cards tied to a SMART Philippines phone number.
Friends in the Philippines could then send SMS to migrant workers at the linked SMART Philippines number, at a more affordable domestic rate of 1 Philippine Peso ($0.02). The plan to stimulate SMS traffic worked out very well, and up to 5 million SMSes were sent in a single month, says Palanca.