Binondo banker in 3G fray

THE keys to the digital kingdom—otherwise known as the third-generation (3G) license and frequency bands—have now been awarded by the National Telecommunications Commission to four players out of field of about 10 who eagerly bid for this opportunity to make oodles of money.

Three of the companies awarded the 3G licenses were hardly a surprise—Smart and Globe, the telecom titans who are way ahead in the market, and Sun Cellular which operates at a respectful distance.

But CURE? Who they? Well, you may ask, for the news that CURE—or Connectivity Unlimited Resources Inc.—had been awarded one of the four sought after 3G licenses got corporate eyebrows curving, because the company, apart from been little known, had no track record of any sort in this fiercely competitive mobile-telephone field.

It did though have a guy at the helm with good connections, stretching back to the days of the Marcos Conjugal dictatorship when he was the trade secretary, during which time his name was whispered as being linked to what was infamously known as the Binondo Central Bank through which millions of dollars allegedly found their way to Hong Kong.

We talk of now mostly Hong Kong- (and Tuscany?) based Bobby Ongpin, he of the salt and pepper hair mop, who—so corporate cocktail circuit tattle has it—has managed to establish some impeccable present day connections too. Hey, not for nothing is the “C” in CURE stand for “connectivity”!

Since Ongpin got the treasured 3G license he has been talking the talk—like saying he would invest up to P14 billion in the first four years of CURE’s operations, and that CURE would have 33-percent market share in the sixth year of operations. Those pronouncements, we must say, got corporate eyebrows arching even more so.

Those who know Ongpin as a consummate business operator (he does have a toe in the telecom waters through Eastern Telecom) appear to think that he will now use the license as leverage to raise big bucks, or to bring in a dollar rich overseas 3G player. Either way Ongpin is sure to be laughing all the way to the Swiss banks—thanks to the munificence of the NTC

Ongpin’s camp has already dropped the name of Asia’s richest man, Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing—with 3G operations is many countries including the United Kingdom—as a possible partner.

But our sources across the South China Sea tell us that the Hong Kong billionaire may not be interested in a Philippines telecom venture on account of the fact that Smart and Globe are so dominant that they will continue to feast even from the 3G table, with Sun and CURE left to feed off the crumbs.

Conventional wisdom being that if Li Ka-shing was venturing in he would normally do so in partnership with, or by taking a controlling stake in, a company that was already well established in the market.

And CURE (not to be mistaken for a British punk rock band of that name) most certainly ain’t that. Manila Times