What is the biggest obstacle for businesses to reach their tech-savvy target market? Data plans and all their unexpected charges. A lot of Filipinos are still wary of online transactions and, much less, mobile surfing. They would rather go through channels that they know with absolute certainty. Mobile surfing presents a gray area for them. Indeed, mobile data charges can get somewhat convoluted and complex. This becomes a great barrier for enterprises (small, medium, and large, alike) to reach the customers they want to tap.
Enter SafeZone. Earlier this year, telecoms and digital services provider PLDT launched this new platform which enabled users to access their favorite sites and partnered apps and brands for free. Currently, brands like Facebook, Twitter, BPI, Inquirer, Zalora, and Foodpanda are available through SafeZone.
Now, PLDT, through its corporate business group PLDT ALPHA Enterprise, in partnership with Voyager Innovations, is bringing the free-access platform to local enterprises to help them extend their online reach and boost their digital profiles to their customers.
“PLDT ALPHA Enterprise is enabling enterprises to form a more intimate relationship with their customers, and thereby creating stronger affinity to their brand and business,” said PLDT/Smart EVP and ePLDT President and CEO Eric Alberto. “Companies who advertise will find this compelling,” he said. He also states that during the media launch alone, over twenty companies have already expressed a strong interest in SafeZone. The service builds an enterprise’s below-the-line marketing. SafeZone is a channel which delivers the enterprise’s services to a wider audience.
With their current lineup, SafeZone seems reserved for large enterprises. But, Heidi M. Garayblas, business unit head for SafeZone, Voyager Innovations, assures that SafeZone is accessible for both SMEs and startups. She says that startups under PLDT-backed incubator Ideaspace have already expressed interest in SafeZone.
SafeZone’s enterprise packages starts at P20,000 for 10GB. Their services go up to P250,000 for 250GB. To subscribe to SafeZone, enterprises need to submit the Subscriber Agreement Form (SAF) containing their domain URLs, IP addresses, and mobile application APKs. Websites and applications placed within SafeZone will be zero-rated on the network. (Zero-rating is the process of defining website and mobile applications to pass through a specific data network pay wall. This allows the network to define payment terms and schemes for users accessing the website and/or mobile application.)
Enterprises may register up to five (5) separate domains. All sub-domains are already automatically zero-rated. Pages with dynamic IP addresses cannot be included within SafeZone at the moment.
Enterprises without mobile applications are also encouraged to apply as not having a mobile application will not increase the service price. Alberto also states that these enterprises may also take advantage of PLDT’s recent partnership with Phunware, which will launch in the coming weeks. Phunware is a US-based mobile development platform that has developed applications for international giants like CBS, NBC, and the WWE. PLDT’s exclusive distribution of the platform will enable enterprises to develop apps within only six weeks.
Sites and applications included within SafeZone can be discovered at www.safezone.ph/free-services.
