| Philippine telecom firm acquires 30% equity of Irish wireless company |
MANILA, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines' Smart Communications Inc. has acquired 30 percent equity interest worth 15.9 million U.S. dollars in Blue Ocean Wireless (BOW), a Dublin-based telecommunication company, a Manila newspaper reported on Wednesday.
The acquisition was made through the Smart's wholly owned subsidiary, Smart-Connect Holdings PTE Limited, the Manila Bulletin report said.
The Philippine company's move aimed to serve the growing wireless satellite phone customers, especially those among the world's 1.2 million seafarers, according to the report.
The BOW has a global mobile communication system for the merchant maritime sector. It delivers the world's first nautical GSM network that supports full voice and text services, it said.
The report added that around 40 percent of the world's seafarers are Filipinos and the Smart sees the BOW as an important complementary service to its prepaid wireless satellite phone service.
The Smart Communications is a major mobile telecommunication provider of the Philippines, second to the Globe Telecom.
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