PLDT Digital Unit Eyes Partnership with Foreign Firm

Telecommunications firm PLDT Inc.’s digital unit Voyager Innovation is pursuing a partnership with a foreign firm within the year as part of efforts to further improve the delivery of digital services to its subscribers.

This comes as the company prepares for the entry of a third major player in the local telco industry.

“The partnership is strategic and financial. It will excite the market,” PLDT Chairman and CEO Manuel V. Pangilinan said in an interview with reporters Wednesday.

Voyager is a digital innovation firm of PLDT which is involved in financial technology (fintech) through PayMaya, e-commerce, and digital marketing.

Pangilinan said last November that PLDT was considering to partner with a Chinese firm to strengthen one of its units or to create a new entity.

Its corporate rival Globe Telecom and its fintech firm Globe Fintech Innovations Incorporated (Mynt) has announced a partnership with Jack Ma’s Ant Financial last year.

PLDT is allocating a capital expenditure of more than Php50 billion in 2018 for network improvements and deployment of facilities for wireless and fixed line businesses.