Bayantel unveils "Span," which combines landline and mobile

TUNDE FAFUNWA, the chief executive consultant of Bayan Telecommunications, poses at the Bayantel launch in Makati City of its new offering called Span, a combination of fixed-line and mobile-phone service, with a P1.5-billion investment. --NONIE REYES

By Max de Leon

Reporter

THERE is a market for voice calls out there waiting to be tapped by someone with a reasonable rate of charges. This is why the Lopez Group’s Bayan Telecommunications Inc. launched its hybrid Span telephones, which allows subscribers unlimited Span-to-Span calling and texting at a fixed amount of P749 per month. The telephone unit to be used for this service is a mobile one. Bayantel chief executive consultant Tunde Fafunwa believes 90 percent of the 40 million mobile users or 36 million are forced to resort to text messaging because of the high cost of voice calls. Of the estimated 36 million “texters,” he further believes about 29 million or 80 percent would prefer to talk rather than send text “if the price is right.” He said the company has so far invested P1.5 billion for the setting up of the needed infrastructure and other operating costs to roll out its Span phones project. There will be no additional charge for a call using the Span to connect to any landline with the same area code. National Direct Distance calls carry a rate of P4 per minute. Each text message sent to other networks will be charged P1, while calls to other networks will be billed from P8 to P12 per minute. “By next year, we are targeting to reach a subscriber base of 100,000,” said Fafunwa at the Span launch in Greenbelt, Makati. They currently have 75,000 subscribers. By midyear, the Span will have 80 percent of Metro Manila covered. To ensure a high quality of service, Bayantel has allotted P50 million as ready money for refunds to dissatisfied subscribers, said Fafunwa.

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