MANILA, Philippines – Leading telecommunications company PLDT and subsidiary SubicTel signed up an agreement recently with 10 Subic merchants to provide the latter with premium WiFi service, increasing to 125 the total number of establishments currently powered by PLDT’s WiFi zones in the Subic Bay Freeport area.

“Subic is one of the most-visited tourist destinations in the country and we are happy to provide WiFi service which enables tourists and residents of Subic to connect to the Internet that gives them access to various travel and news sites, as well as social networks like Facebook and Twitter where they share photos and videos of their travels with friends and family,” said PLDT Home Wired Data Head Gary Dujali.

Among the Subic establishments that signed the WiFi zone partnership agreement with PLDT and SubicTel were Aristocrat Restaurant, All Hands Beach Resort, Eastern Gasoline Station, Meat Plus Restaurant, Subic Bay Yacht Club, Zoobic Safari, Pier One Bar and Grill, and Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA).
 
“The WiFi zone powered by PLDT is a value-added service that offers a premium and a dedicated line with speed of up to 100 mbps to partner-establishments, so they can dedicate this line solely for their customers’ WiFi use,” said PLDT Home Data Acquisition Senior Manager Ma. Myla Margarita C. Villanueva.

For SBMA Telephony Standards Officer-In-Charge Engr. Joey Lacanlale, the WiFi zone is a value-added service that enables employees to access the Internet easily, helping them accomplish work assignments. “Both employees and visitors benefit from the WiFi service.”

Senior Retail Supervisor Danrick John Dayto who represented Eastern Gasoline Station during the contract signing remarked that, “More customers will be attracted to drop by our station once they learn that we are a WiFi zone area. It will be our big advantage over our competitors, since most of our customers are tourists who are looking for WiFi access.”

Zoobic Safari’s Sales/Marketing Officer Jonathan Oca said WiFi service is extremely important, “In the innovation aspect of a theme park like Zoobic Safari, we have a lot of online services. Mostly, our products are sold online, we also have Facebook and Twitter campaigns, so WiFi is really very helpful to us and our customers.”

Villanueva explained that one deciding factor for a customer who wants to go to a restaurant, hotel, or any establishment, is to check whether it’s a WiFi zone-enabled area because people want to be connected with family, friends, and loved ones. “When you’re at home, you have the PLDT myDSL connection, when you go out, you also want to be connected and the WiFi zone makes this possible.”

PLDT representatives provide a WiFi ID to customers which can be obtained by simply registering on the PLDT WiFi zone website at www.wifizone.pldthome.com. Customers can use the ID anywhere in the 3,500 WiFi hotspots nationwide. All they need is just one username and password and it gives them instant access to the Internet.

WiFi zones are equipped with a very robust, fixed line infrastructure by PLDT, thus owners of establishments no longer need to invest on the infrastructure.

According to SubicTel President Dennis G. Magbatoc, “We are the only telco who is investing on this offering. We ourselves are putting up the WiFi zone infrastructure not just in Metro Manila but also in key cities like Subic and Clark. We are continuously enhancing this service to ensure that a stable, premium WiFi connection is delivered to our subscribers.”