smart sun cellular

Casino also referred to the on-going process where PLDT is finalizing its acquisition of Digitel, making the over-all market share between Smart and Sun Cellular over 70%. Back in March, PLDT announced it has agreed to buy majority of Digitel (which includes Sun Cellular) in a share-swap deal. We asked people if they think the Smart+Sun merger, of sorts, will improve the carrier's service and offerings (see story here). We've already said our piece here before (Merging Smart & Sun not good for consumers?) and pondered on the reasons why PLDT made this move. PLDT now has an overwhelming majority of the telco business in the Philippines -- it owns Smart, Talk 'N Text, Red Mobile and now Sun Cellular representing more than 70% of the subscriber base combined {see earlier story here}. PLDT's investment in Digitel (and effectively owning Sun Cellular) does not seem to make sense in terms of positioning. And then there's Red Mobile which has only recently found a niche in the "unli" segment -- obviously to counter Sun Cellular encroaching into its low-end subscriber base. This was evident when Sun was the first telco to actually hit the 1 million postpaid subscriber mark, way ahead of Globe and Smart. Read more in our articles including "Casino charges NTC under telco's payroll" and "NTC hearing on PLDT-Digitel deal on May 23".