As of Nov 8, Mindanao Islamic Telephone Company is the new 3rd player in telecom. A few SC challenges going on that will go nowhere. With 40% ownership by China Telecom, I am very hopeful that our internet service is on the way up! This also might put competitive pressure on Globe, hopefully, so they can improve their attitude towards their Customers and provide something that has been lacking; customer service. I don’t know about pldt. Maybe China telecom will invest in infrastructure such as a fiber backbone to replace the much slower satellite backbone that slows even the fiber services down. I don’t know why religion is invoked in the name, maybe an interesting story, but the China Telecom involvement is great news. They know how to do telecom and will be interested in actually making money through investment rather than simply providing dividends to long time stockholders. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Hopefully they don't go the way of most Muslim telecoms and force their religious beliefs on their customers.
More like blocking websites that are offensive to Islam and sending out unsolicited quran quotes through text and automated calls to praise Mohammad/Allah. (Things that all happen with existing Muslim telecoms throughout the world.) Simply put, with the way Islam is practiced today it is simply not compatible with a free and open society. I will not be a customer or support their practices in any way.
It is a bit odd. When I look at the 60% Filipino side, I don’t think mr Uy’s organization is particularly ‘Islamic’. His name is Chinese-Filipino; he may be Christian. As I posted, I am not sure why they put Islam in the name but I don’t think it will really be of a muslim nature. I can’t figure it out. Maybe it was to impress NTC that it added to the representation of another group in the Philippines (they are really China Telecom but the name makes them look like homegrown from a place that is politically correct). We’ll see in the future. None of that crap for me either. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I think the name of the new tele company is a commercial "trick' to get Muslims customers in Mindanao
I imagine they will gain a monopoly with the Muslim minority in Mindanao with that name. They will likely struggle outside of that demographic. They would probably be well served to have a subsidiary with a different name to serve customers outside of that area (similar to what Globe and Smart do with TM and TnT).
As far as I can see the only think Islamic about the telephone company is the name (formed in 1997) - which may have been influenced by the establishment of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and the legitimization of the MNLF in 1996. In 1998 Mindanao Islamic Telephone Company was granted a franchise to "Construct, Establish, Install, Maintain and Operate Wire and/or Wireless Telecommunications Systems in the Philippines" but it never managed to do so. With franchises being not easy to come by these days it seems quite obvious why Uy and friends would be interested in exploiting this. After all, the internet has grown a bit since 1998. Renewal of the franchise is possible in 2023 givening them just enough time to test the waters but I don't see any major connectivity revolutions on the cards before then. https://thecorpusjuris.com/legislative/republic-acts/ra-no-8627.php https://ipinfo.io/AS137973