Battle brewing in Philippines as beer maker San Miguel prepares to launch mobile telco

The largest conglomerate in the Philippines, the San Miguel Corporation – yes, it makes San Miguel beer – is set to get into a new business. That is, into the telecommunications business.

But this isn’t the company’s first foray into the phone market. A few years back, it acquired Liberty Telecoms, which carries the broadband connectivity service Wi-tribe.

However, this new San Miguel venture into a mobile telecoms business will be operating separately from its earlier acquisition. The San Miguel mobile telco plans to launch next year; the firm is currently working on building cell sites across the country.

Breaking the duopoly

Apart from San Miguel, broadcasting company ABS-CBN has also voiced its intentions to launch a telco company by the end of the year.

In contrast to most other Asian countries, the Philippines only has two major telcos: PLDT (which owns Smart Communications and Sun Cellular) and Globe Telecom.

The entrance of new telcos in the country will surely heat up the mobile data space. Currently, PLDT leads the market covering 68 percent of the nation’s mobile subscribers. It remains to be seen what these telcos will offer and how they’ll get consumers to switch over.

(Source: Digital Spidey)

(Editing by Steven Millward)