The Philippines' Globe Telecom has completed the integration of BayanTel into its operations as part of the latter's debt rehabilitation program.
The operator revealed it plans to give BayanTel customers faster and more stable broadband connections by the fourth quarter of 2016, BusinessWorld Onlinereported.
BayanTel entered court-assisted rehabilitation in 2003 due to insufficient revenue to pay its debts. Globe began to take over the stagnating company in 2013 as part of a debt-to-equity conversion scheme.
This process has now been completed and Globe now has a nearly 100% stake in BayanTel. Globe expect BayanTel customers to start to feel the benefits towards the end of next year.
As part of the takeover Globe will cease to use BayanTel as a mobile brand, but will for now retain the name as a fixed line brand. The company is considering dissolving the name altogether due to the relative strength of the Globe brand compared to the BayanTel brand.
Globe spent around $172 million so far investing in BayanTel including through the debt-to-equity program, and has revealed plans to spend around $200 to $300 million to modernize the BayanTel network.