I caught a news item in the Philippine Star – which doesn’t keep its articles online for long. It was here for a few days. This is from the “Hidden Agenda” column by Mary Ann LL. Reyes. She wrote about ePLDT:
To further bolster its ICT presence, ePLDT has just invested an additional P20 million in Airborne Access Corp., bringing its equity interest in the latter from 1.9 to 51 percent. Airborne is the country’s leading operator of Wi-Fi hotspots, which provides wireless Internet access in hotspots equipped with Airborne Access Wi-Fi access points.
The first buy-in was in 2003.
The Airborne Access “Launchpad Hotspot in a Box” allows wannabe hotspot operators buy a turnkey package. To date, they are free to choose whichever broadband provider they want. Will majority ePLDT ownership limit them to PLDT broadband services?
Globe’s Wireless Internet Zone (WIZ) seems to be lagging behind. It seems that it owns and operates its own hotspots, and is limited by the coverage of its own GlobeQuest broadband facilities.
