my philstar column today - RSA said he intends to disrupt the duopoly of Smart and Globe. To do that, he needs GMA’s content. Did he say disrupt? We were of course more than a little skeptical of his ability to disrupt the two telcos now in a comfortable duopoly. Indeed, how can he credibly claim ability to catch up with the reality that Smart and Globe had years of head start, millions of subscribers, a functioning national backbone of cell sites and the deep pockets of their principal shareholders. RSA doesn’t even have a formal telco yet and he was telling us he would disrupt the industry. How? Oh, he said, the local subscribers are not loyal. Most are on pre paid and are driven by rates. The duopoly is making so much in profits, he explained, so that he suspects there are a lot of fat or excess profits he can target. He will bring the rates down the way he is disrupting the airline industry now. And since he will also have the latest technology that he will acquire at costs much lower than when the duopoly acquired theirs, he will have an edge there too. And then there is service… he also intends to up the game there, knowing how dissatisfied current telco subscribers are with the service they are getting. If he can pull that off, he may yet save the major accomplishment of FVR: opening up the telco industry to competition. From seven or so participants in the telco industry after the field was leveled by FVR with the help of the legal strategy of now Supreme Court Justice Tony Carpio, we only have two left. We are almost back to square one.
Posted on: Mon, 30 Jun 2014 02:29:44 +0000
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