We Are IT Philippines Signs Bulk Broadband Capacity Deal with Thaicom

Thursday 03 May 2018 09:00
We Are It Philippines (WIT) agrees to purchase entire IPSTAR satellite capacity of both spot and broadcast beams for the Philippines.

Companies sign multi-year agreement to roll out high-throughput satellite capacity to support Philippines 3rd telco market entry and government's free Wi-Fi broadband projects.

Thaicom Public Company Limited (Stock Exchange of Thailand: THCOM)—a leading Asian satellite operator and provider of integrated satellite communications solutions—and We Are IT Philippines Inc. (WIT)—the leading satellite broadband service provider in the Philippines—have signed a multi-year capacity wholesale agreement aimed at providing connectivity for the rollout of nationwide enterprise and government broadband projects.

According to the terms of the agreement, WIT will use the entire IPSTAR capacity of both spot and broadcast beams for the Philippines. The agreement will also see WIT provide broadband connectivity through the IPSTAR high-throughput satellite to serve market verticals in the Philippines, including broadcasting, telecom, mobile network operators, and maritime.

Anant Kaewruamvongs, CEO of Thaicom Public Company Limited, said: "I thank WIT for their continued trust in us. The Philippines is the perfect satellite market, due to the wide geographical and population distribution of the archipelago. I am pleased that Thaicom is able to help the Philippines in its transformation for the digital era. IPSTAR's high-throughput capacity is ideal to connect unserved and underserved areas in the Philippines, thus improving the lives of millions of Filipinos and accelerating the country's economic growth."

"Demand for affordable, fast and unlimited satellite broadband connectivity is expected to grow in the Philippines' enterprise, government, education and consumer sectors", said Joseph Maddatu, CEO, We Are IT (WIT) Philippines. "Our partnership of more than 10 years with Thaicom continues to support our vision of cost effective satellite capacity for the country. We will be able to roll out the network infrastructure for the country's 3rd mobile network operator, as well as government and enterprise broadband VSAT projects faster and more cost effectively as the result of the agreement with Thaicom. Furthermore, we can support the government's free Wi-Fi broadband initiative that brings high speed connectivity to the rural areas and more importantly, support mobile network operators with backhaul services in their effort to expand their coverage and increase data capacity to their cellular sites. This initiative is in line with our objective to drive our top line exponentially and put WIT at par or even bigger than some of its listed peers in the Philippines."

"We take pride in our ability to drive the common goal of connecting individuals, businesses and governments across ASEAN with affordable and reliable broadband services", said Patompob (Nile) Suwansiri, CCO of Thaicom. "WIT has been a long term partner of Thaicom for over a decade and this latest agreement solidifies this strong partnership by taking it to another level. With WIT, the Philippines now has access to 1.5 Gbps of capacity throughout the country."