Press Release
Smart Enables The Philippine National Police
[June 29, 2007/ Manila, Philippines] - Leading wireless services provider Smart Communications, Inc. (SMART) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) recently entered into a strategic partnership that will push for the use of SMART wireless technologies and solutions to meet the PNP’s various requirements.
Under the memorandum of agreement, PNP will utilize Smart’s innovative cellphone-based infrastructure to enhance its communication facilities, including an internal Short Messaging System (SMS) broadcast service, that will allow multiple and simultaneous broadcasts of information.
“We at Smart are very pleased and excited to be part of this initiative. We are confident that our partnership with the PNP, will only push us to excel in what we do—that is, is to provide the communications infrastructure that will enable the PNP to offer new and innovative services to a wider audience, whenever, and wherever possible,” said Napoleon L. Nazareno, President and CEO of Smart.
The partnership is in line with Smart’s efforts in creating communities that are enabled by mobile and Internet technologies. Danilo J. Mojica, Smart Head for Wireless Consumer Division remarked, “Smart is continuously looking for touch points in nation building. As the country’s leading wireless service provider, our role, and key competency, is to provide the technology and infrastructure that will enable and empower the PNP, to achieve lasting peace and order.”
Smart and PNP also agreed to cooperate in developing a PNP service card to be issued the Land Bank of the Philippines, the country’s premier government bank with the most extensive branch network covering all 79 provinces in the Philippines. It has 741 Land Bank's ATMs and over 7,000 affiliate ATMs of Expressnet, Bancnet and Megalink all over the country. Land Bank will utilize the mobile commerce platform of the award-winning Smart Money. Smart Money is the world’s first electronic wallet card linked to a mobile phone, which won the 2001 3GSM Award for “Most Innovative GSM Wireless Service for Customers.”
The PNP service card will be more than just a regular ID. Members of the PNP may also use the card to send and receive money locally and even from abroad, reload their Smart prepaid cellphones, pay for purchases in Smart Money accredited merchants, use it as an ATM card and encash from Smart Wireless Centers and other accredited establishments nationwide. This will benefit members of the PNP in terms of having a reliable, efficient and faster way of sending their remittances to their families back home – wherever they may be.
Smart Communications, Inc. is the Philippines' leading wireless services provider with over 26 million on its GSM network, equivalent to approximately 58 percent market share. A wholly owned subsidiary of the country’s dominant telecommunications carrier, the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT), Smart operates a nationwide cellular network and a satellite phone service. It has the most extensive and modern digital communications GSM network and infrastructure in the country, covering over 99 percent of the population. As of end-March 2007, Smart’s GSM network consists of 36 switches and 6,065 base stations, over 2,600 of which are equipped with wireless broadband capability. Smart also has over 1,000 3G base stations nationwide.
The alliance of Smart with the PNP comes at the heels of a similar partnership forged recently with the Philippine Military Academy. Smart has likewise tied-up with transport infrastructure companies such as the North and South Toll ways, the SuperFerry and the MRT; mobile banking partnerships with seven Philippine commercial banks; and Smart Money tie-ups with four of the country’s leading banks, including Land Bank. Smart has also formalized its partnership with the Unicef and other socio-civic organizations, and has strengthened its alliance with Gawad Kalinga. It has also established agreements with merchants and commercial establishments nationwide.
Smart President and CEO Napoleon L. Nazareno added, “With the signing of this Memorandum of Agreement, we have taken the first significant step towards marking another milestone in our quest to provide relevant and innovative services to the increasingly mobile Filipino. The Philippine National Police has now become part of our vision of a Smart world.”