Dominant carrier Philippines Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) is seeking to double its Internet business this year by introducing an aggressive promotional campaign for its narrowband dial-up offering.

PLDT Retail Business Group head Butch Jimenez explained that this strategy is a crucial first step in the giant telecommunication company?s thrust to dominate the local Internet market, particularly the DSL (digital subscriber line) segment.

?Our strategy is to capture the narrowband subscribers since they will form the foundation of the broadband subscriber base in the future,? Jimenez disclosed.

To entice users into taking up its data offering, the company launched PLDT Vibe Plan 99 which gives postpaid dial-up subscribers over 99 hours of Internet access for only 99 pesos (US$1.80). This 1 peso-per-hour rate puts PLDT?s dial-up offering at par ? and, thus, in a very competitive footing compared ? with other dial-up Internet service providers (ISPs) offering similar low packaged plans.

With this offering, PLDT expects to capture over 50 percent of the narrowband market within the year. The move is also aimed to complement PLDT?s position in the broadband DSL market, where it commands more than 80 percent market share. The PLDT Retail Business Group expects to more than double its data revenues for 2005. From about 1 billion pesos in 2004, Jimenez said the phone firm expects to double its data revenues to over 2 billion pesos by year-end.

?Our DSL broadband business is growing at an even faster pace than last year despite strong competition,? he noted. ?With our new initiatives in narrowband, we expect our total data business to provide significant growth in the total revenues of the company.?

?Our move can only be good for the public,? said Jimenez. ?It will give our subscribers affordable access to the internet.? The PLDT executive said this move is also in line with the company?s response to the government?s call to deliver Internet services to as many Filipinos as possible.

Fixed NDD Rate

In line with its low-cost dial offering, PLDT also announced that it is offering a ?flat rate? for national direct dial (NDD) calls. From the 5 peso-per-minute call rate that PLDT had been charging its customers for domestic long distance calls, the company is now offering a flat 10 peso-per-call rate.

This means that each domestic long distance call from a PLDT phone to another PLDT phone ? regardless of duration ? will be charged 10 pesos. The same rate applies for calls emanating from a PLDT landline to a Smart or Talk ?N Text mobile phone.

In earlier reports, Jimenez said this offering is designed to win back the landline subscribers PLDT has lost to other carriers or to mobile operators over the last few years.