Tag: Telco

Malaysia – Malaysian telecom company Telekom Malaysia is making an interesting stride in content marketing with its newest insights hub – its Official TM Blog. The content destination will be providing direct access to thoughts and insights from the group’s top leaders and subject matter experts in the telco and technology sector.

Following the footsteps of some of the world’s biggest tech firms, the blog intends to become a one-stop information centre for key decision-makers, analysts as well as the media, allowing them to get the latest industry happenings, new ideas, analyses as well as trends in digital technologies and transformation, sustainability, organisational culture and various other exciting topics.

Written to engage and inspire an informed global audience, the articles are clustered into four segments namely Ideas, Trends, Achievements, and Insights.

The Official TM Blog is updated monthly, and is accessible from the main page of its corporate website.

Hong Kong – Hong Kong-based telecommunications and technology services provider, HKBN Group, has appointed William Ho, former managing director at AI networking company Juniper Networks, to be the new CEO of Enterprise Solutions.

In his new role, Ho will be leading HKBN’s enterprise services arm, expanding and leveraging its system integration capabilities, and further consolidating and developing the blue ocean business growth strategy across Hong Kong and Mainland China.

With nearly 30 years of professional experience in the ICT industry, Ho brings many holistic dimensions having been a customer-side user and a service provider, covering network technology, internet, cloud, and big data, as well as e-commerce, amongst others. He is amongst the few senior executives with a broad range of experiences in technology R&D, sales and marketing, and business development. Aside from his previous role at Juniper Networks, Ho has also held senior executive positions at local and international companies, including Cohesity, ARRIS, Cisco, and Hong Kong Jockey Club, amongst others.

Commenting on his appointment, Ho said, “In a dynamic evolving business landscape, HKBN’s Talent-Obsession culture uniquely empowers our talents to embrace changes and do everything to help our enterprise customers to foster their digital transformation and gain their competitive edge rather than merely save money. I am thrilled to have my skin in the game as a co-owner and to achieve our goals together with our Elite Sports Team.”

Meanwhile, William Yeung and NiQ Lai, HKBN’s co-owners, said that Ho is putting his skin in the game by investing an amount equivalent to 2 years’ salary into their co-ownership scheme. 

“With William leading HKBN Enterprise Solutions, our goal is to bring digital solutions that go beyond connectivity services to our 110K corporate customers, fortifying our customer relationship, driving efficiency and business impact in Hong Kong and across mainland China, especially the Greater Bay Area. We welcome William to our Elite Sports Team,” they added.

Singapore – Society Pass (SoPa), the data-driven loyalty and e-commerce ecosystem in SEA, has acquired Singapore-based Gorilla Networks (Gorilla), a next-generation Web3-enabled MVNO.

Established in Singapore in 2019, Gorilla utilises Web3 technology to operate an MVNO for its users in Southeast Asia. With network coverage to over 160 countries, Gorilla offers a full suite of mobile communication services such as local calls, international roaming, data, and SMS texting. Moreover, Gorilla enables its customers to convert unused mobile data into digital assets or Gorilla GO Tokens through its proprietary blockchain-based SwitchBack feature. 

Dennis Nguyen, SoPa founder, chairman and CEO, explained, “We are excited to make our first acquisition in Singapore, and welcome Gorilla into our SoPa family. Gorilla’s technology platform aligns well with our acquisition strategy as we incorporate Gorilla’s blockchain and Web3 capabilities onto the SoPa ecosystem and enable the new meta-economy for all our portfolio companies.” 

“From our Leflair lifestyle e-commerce platform to our Pushkart/Handycart F&B delivery services, as we roll out the Society Pass loyalty platform in the coming months, we leverage Gorilla’s technology to drive customer retention for merchants and create innovative revenue models for our ecosystem,” added Nguyen.

With the rebound of the travel market throughout Southeast Asia, Gorilla expects to dramatically increase its customer base by marketing to the region’s business and leisure travellers with its user-friendly technology platform. It plans to expand its MVNO services offering to Vietnam, Thailand, and Malaysia over the next 12 months.

“When we started Gorilla Networks three years ago, our vision was to build a democratised mobile communications service platform where users regardless of nationality, home location or mobile subscription plans can access essential telecoms services such as roaming and mobile data anywhere and everywhere throughout the world. Gorilla is currently transitioning existing web 2 telco services onto the web3 economy by tokenising mobile data as digital assets,” said Xanne Leo, founder and CEO of Gorilla Networks.

“In 2021, we digitised eSIMS, data plans, and mobile numbers as NFTs, which dramatically transformed how our users purchase, interact and experience mobile services. By joining forces with SoPa’s extensive ecosystem and large user base in Southeast Asia, we are thrilled about the combined marketing capabilities we will now bring collectively to our partners and customers,” added Xanne Leo. 

For our Empowered Women Series last March, we sat down with the women leaders of SoPa – PH Country Manager Abie Pagdanganan and CEO Pamela Aw-Young. 

Pagdanganan shared about the platform’s goals, “So our business on the consumer-facing side, we aim to integrate everything that you need into just one ecosystem. This is where consumers can easily search books or order anything they want or need, through our values interconnected that works.”

Manila, Philippines – The postpaid service of local telco Sun Cellular is rebranding to Smart Postpaid, the postpaid offering of telco Smart. This officially comes into effect by April 25.

It should be recalled that Sun has been integrated in Smart’s mobile network infrastructure and corporate management since 2016. In 2020, Sun’s corporate logo featured a subline saying ‘Powered by Smart’, and its prepaid offering was previously rebranded to Smart Prepaid as well in the same year.

In line with the rebranding, all Sun Postpaid or Sun Broadband packages and products will no longer be available.

In addition, a user’s Sun Postpaid number will become a Smart Postpaid number. The telco assures that the user will still be able to use their existing SIM and plan inclusions. Meanwhile, for postpaid needs, Smart encourages new customers to avail of Smart Signature plans and get access to all the great features and benefits of being a Smart Postpaid subscriber.

“All consumer Sun Postpaid, Sun Broadband and Sun FLP subscribers will become Smart Postpaid on April 25, 2022 and will be able to enjoy the full range of available services from Smart Postpaid. This will only cover all the active and individual Sun Postpaid accounts. Sun Postpaid Corporate account users will not yet be covered in this activity,” Smart said in an online statement.

Sun Cellular was previously under Digitel Mobile Philippines, which was then acquired by PLDT in 2011.

Manila, Philippines – To celebrate the launch of Smart GIGA Arena, an online arcade and esports tournament platform, the Philippine-based telco hosted an exhibition match last 9 March 2022, which features some of the best Filipino esports players and content creators of mobile game Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (ML).

During the exhibition match, the pro esports team Smart Omega took on the Smart Dream Team, which was led by cosplayer and gamer Alodia Gosiengfiao, as well as included streamers and content creators Dexie Diaz, Ghostwrecker, Nix, and Pabbie Gaming.

After tying the match at one game apiece, the pros followed that up by proving their mettle and professional pedigree in the third game. It was a competitive bout that lasted almost 20 minutes, and Omega took it to the Dream Team’s base again.

On top of the amazingly competitive three games between Smart Omega and the Dream Team, some lucky viewers of the stream also came away with special Mobile Legends skins just by watching and registering to Smart GIGA Arena.

The telco said, “Smart subscribers who are also gamers and esports enthusiasts can enjoy the same kind of intense and exciting Mobile Legends action, as well as more of their favourite mobile games, on Smart’s GIGA Arena platform.”

On Smart GIGA Arena, subscribers can link up with their friends and play in tournaments to rank up and win cash prizes. They can also play arcade games, buy diamonds and other in-game currency, and watch footage and streams of events on the platform.

Philippines – PLDT, one of the largest telcos in the country, alongside its wireless subsidiary Smart Communications, have announced its partnership with global customer experience and employee platform Medallia.

Through the CX implementation Medallia will be supported by global media company Kantar in implementing the technology solution across PLDT and Smart. Medallia and Kantar joined the PLDT team for a digital signing ceremony to officially seal the deal. Furthermore, with support from Medallia and Kantar, PLDT and Smart aims to optimise customer experience management across all channels, including digital platforms, mobile phone applications, and contact centres. 

Alfredo S. Panlilio, president and CEO of PLDT and Smart, said, “A large part of our commitment to provide world-class connectivity for all Filipinos is to empower our people and processes with technology that allows them to render the best customer experience.”

He added, “Our engagement with Medallia and Kantar gives us this technology, and empowers us to listen and respond to our customers more effectively, as they are our North Star for all group-wide efforts,.”

Meanwhile, Leslie Stretch, president and CEO of Medallia, commented, “To thrive in the highly competitive world of telecommunications, providers must delight customers and employees by responding to their needs with the same speed, interactivity, and connectivity that they expect from your network.”

“Medallia helps amplify the voice of customers across all touchpoints, enabling PLDT and Smart to listen and act on feedback in a consistent, deliberate, and thoughtful manner. We look forward to working with PLDT and Smart to delight customers with world-class experiences,” Stretch added.

He added, “Medallia continues to expand across the telecommunications industry in APAC and currently works with customers in key markets including Singapore, Japan, and Indonesia, to help optimise their customer experience.”

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Local telco provider U Mobile has tapped marketing and technology solutions provider GrowthOps for its refreshed website and customer experience delivery platform, U.COM.MY. The partnership between the two companies started development for this project eight months ago.

The new and enhanced platform is powered by Adobe Experience Cloud and hosted on Amazon Web Services, enabling the telco to have greater autonomy and agility in managing content, as well as access to deeper and more comprehensive user analytics.

Through the improvements, U.COM.MY now offers an enhanced, trilingual customer experience through personalised content delivery, which enables the telco to achieve their overarching goal to better service their customers on digital channels.

Boon Keong, head of consulting at GrowthOps, said, “Today, marketers are being tasked with how to create an engaging experience with their customers through seamless design and analytics-driven content personalisation. In this instance, we have been able to help U Mobile to take their digital transformation journey [directly] to their customers.”

Meanwhile, Jasmine Lee, chief digital officer at U Mobile, commented that they believe that the refreshed U.COM.MY will equip them with more insights that will enable them to make more data-led decisions resulting in new digital experiences that benefit their customers.

“U Mobile is always looking at new ways to realise unlimited potential, hence, we are delighted to have partnered with GrowthOps to create and launch an enhanced U.COM.MY. Through this initiative, GrowthOps have shown to have the right capabilities to take our platform to the next level,” Lee said.

Sri Lanka – SLT Mobitel, leading mobile service provider in Sri Lanka, has rebranded and upgraded its current cloud storage service, SLT Storage, to now be called ‘Eazy Storage’. The telco said the enhanced service is in response to the immense potential in the cloud space, and will be offering customers the ultimate cloud solution with a robust and cutting-edge user interface for cloud applications.

SLT Mobitel offers mobile telephony, broadband services, and roaming and idd services, among others. Its cloud storage, file sync, and sharing solution, Eazy Storage, will have no additional broadband costs. Customers have instant access to all data including all files, photos, messages, contacts, and documents in any format to work and share with others, with real-time collaboration from any device, anywhere.

The telco assures all files are secure with powerful on-server and end-to-end encryption. In addition, the solution is hosted inside SLT-MOBITEL’s state-of-the-art data centers.

Eazy Storage packages range from 5GB to 1000 GB and based on customer requests, 1TB can be offered. With prepaid and postpaid options, rates are priced from Rs 50 to Rs. 4675.

SLT Mobitel shared that it will be unveiling new features in the future, including a family sharing option to be launched soon.

Auckland, New Zealand – When you think of a Christmas-themed campaign, data utilization is the least you would expect to be at the core of it. However, New Zealand-based telco Spark begs to differ. The telco has just released its newest ‘Santa’ for its campaign: a tech assistant called ‘Spark’s New Tech Assistant’ or ‘S.N.T.A’ which allows online users to come up with the ideal Christmas gift for the ones they love. 

Created alongside creative agency Colenso BBDO, ‘S.N.T.A’ is built from thousands and thousands of data points designed to find out what every type of New Zealander wants this year.

The experience can be accessed online and in Spark stores around the country, allowing shoppers to discover what their cousin, family member, or co-worker wants. The data collected by Spark and Colenso is purposefully granular, segmenting giftees by much more than age and relationship, but unique interests and attributes, which add charm to what could have been cold facts and figures.

James Henson, chapter lead at Spark, said, “In the past, our focus has been on Spark’s great range of gifts. But we don’t shop for products at Christmas. We shop for the people we love, which isn’t always easy. Knowing that is what inspired S.N.T.A,”

Meanwhile, Lucy Grigg, who was recently promoted to the role of general manager at Colenso BBDO, commented, “Spark is New Zealand’s leading technology provider – which now extends to Christmas. It’s a pleasure to work with them to sprinkle a bit of holiday magic on their tech and build a product that is both charming and truly helpful to Kiwi shoppers.”

Australia – Belong, the carbon-neutral mobile and internet provider in Australia, has launched a new two-minute radio ad titled, ‘A Love Song to the Internet’, aimed at celebrating the joyful and unexpected wormholes the internet leads its users down.

The spot, which was created in collaboration with advertising agencies Howatson+Company and Eardrum, as well as musician Andy Hopkins, takes the form of a modern love song to the internet, journeying from facts about octopus flatulence to apps that help users speak Spanish. 

Kelly Schulz, Belong’s head of brand, communications, and culture, shared that the internet gets a bad rap sometimes, but it can be a wonderfully joyful, and exciting place, and from streaming hours of random content to joining forums about things that taste like blue, it’s where everyone belongs.

“As a telco that’s all about inclusivity and belonging, we felt compelled to sing about it with some wonderful  Australian musical talent,” said Schulz. 

Meanwhile, Jared Wicker and Elaine Li, Howatson+Company’s creative duo, said, “The internet has always been there for us all and this was our chance to work with Belong to return the favor for consumers with a light-hearted modern love song.”  

The campaign will be running across the national Nova, KISS, and Triple M networks in specially designed two-minute ad placements. 

In September this year, Belong, alongside Howatson+Company, also launched ‘The Book of Limbo’, an offline-online wormhole designed to keep Australians entertained while they set up their new phone.