Almost two weeks ago (remember this?), Sun Cellular vice president for customer relationship management Reuben Pangan informed me that they were testing domestic roaming in Mindanao. This means that Sun subscribers can connect to another local network—in this case, Smart Communications—if Sun’s 2G or 3G signal is not available.
Today, I’ve received confirmation that Sun Cellular has indeed officially rolled that out in Mindanao and in some parts of Luzon.
According to Mr. Pangan, “We have expanded our coverage in Mindanao in cooperation with our sister company in the PLDT Group. In fact, it has even extended to areas in Luzon such as Nueva Ecija, Benguet, Kalinga, and Isabela as well as Marinduque.”
We are looking at another fruit of PLDT’s acquisition of Digitel, which operates Sun. Smart is, of course, a member of the PLDT Group and has about 13,000 cell sites at last disclosure.
Here‘s a press release I found on Sun Cellular’s website:
“Sun Cellular chief operating officer Charles Lim says they will be strengthening their network coverage in areas of Mindanao to include Lanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Camiguin, Zamboanga, Tawi-Tawi, Dinagat Island, Compostela Valley, Sulu, parts of Bukidnon, Cagayan de Oro, and Davao del Sur, among others. ‘The demand for our best-value products and services in Mindanao is immense, hence we prioritized this region in the initial phase of our network enhancement program for 2012,’ he explained.
Lim added, ‘Sun is improving its signal strength in Mindanao to provide its subscribers wider network coverage and more reliable service especially in key areas in the region such as Davao, General Santos, and Cagayan de Oro. We want those in Mindanao to optimize their experience of our unlimited call and text service, as well as the value-for-money bucket load and postpaid plans that Sun has been providing its subscribers nationwide.’
Sun Cellular has been known for its best value product offering such as the Text Unlimited 150 which allows customers to text other Sun subscribers unlimited for 30 days and the Text Unlimited 200 which also includes 500 texts to other networks aside from the 30-day unlimited Sun-to-Sun texts. ‘Mindanao is an important market for us. Local and national officials from the region have been sending us letters on behalf of their constituents and we’d just like to say we have heeded their call,’ Lim enthused.
Lim revealed that the Mindanao network improvement will just be the initial salvo of network enhancement programs that Sun has lined up this year. ‘We will be augmenting our existing 6,000 plus cell sites and will further strengthen coverage which will also be felt in the areas of North Luzon and the Visayas region, wherever there is a demand for Sun’s affordable communication products and services,’ he said.
This will include improving indoor coverage through the use of in-building solutions and high gain antennae in strategic locations. The network improvement program also involves optimizing exisiting cellsites to boost both 2G and 3G signals.”
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