Smart Comm. sent out a release to the media earlier last week announcing that they will be 100% LTE-ready by mid-2012. That’s certainly good news considering that we’re just actually talking about HSPA+ coverage in the past months.
Continue Reading
When I first saw the Huawei E353 HSPA+ USB dongle a couple of weeks ago, I immediately asked our contacts close to the company if there are available open-line units of this model and was told it was directly imported from China by the telcos.
Continue Reading
Bought a Sapido 3G Mobile router last year as a possible replacement for my SmartBro Share-It. So I’m just waiting for my 24-month contract to expire so I could completely move up to this set-up in the car. But then, the local distributor met up with me early this week and showed me their whole new Sapido line-up.
Continue Reading
PLDT now has an overwhelming majority of the telco business in the Philippines — it owns Smart, Talk ‘N Text, Red Mobile and now Sun Cellular representing more than 70% of the subscriber base combined {see earlier story here}.
Continue Reading
Looking back in the last 12 months, we’ve seen quite a number of exciting developments and news that we broke here on YugaTech. Let’s do a quick run down here before the year ends.
Continue Reading
A couple of days ago, I attended a WiMax forum hosted by Intel Philippines. They are helping push the use of WiMax in emerging markets where there are very low but fast growing PC users. Why?
Continue Reading
This was just texted to me by a contact from Globe — that their Visibility plans are now available in prepaid — a move that directly competes with SmartBro Prepaid. This is on top of their postpaid GV 799 and GV 999 plans I reported earlier.
Continue Reading
A short news report today from Inquirer says that Mobile WiMax in the Philippines will be rolled out by the end of the year. Could this be the Globe Innove and Intel Philippines WiMax service I blogged about last October?
Continue Reading
I thought this should have been launched months ago. Smart Broadband Inc. (Smart Bro), a subsidiary of Smart Communications announced the new 3G/HSDPA service in Subic (during the 20th Ad Congress?). Dubbed Plug It, this is basically Smart 3G with a dedicated USB dongle.
Continue Reading
A tip from Lawrence got me all curious about this alleged new HSDPA modem from Globe. A wireless landline plus broadband service has been reported as early as last year and is branded as Speak ‘n Surf.
This month, I was told an upgraded system will be rolled out commercially, promising speeds way better than that of Smart Bro.
Continue Reading
First heard of this line of 3G phones (LG KU250) a couple months back during a dinner meeting with several Smart executives and MediaQuest President Doy Vea. They mentioned that this LG phone has been chosen by the GSM Association in their “3G for All” campaign. Their February press release indicates at least 12 GSM operators will be introducing this model in their respective networks.
Globe Telecoms was also there with their CEO being quoted saying:
As the first to commercially launch 3G & HSDPA in the Philippines, we at Globe Telecom are most excited with the announcement of the “3G For All” winner in this Congress, as this breakthrough initiative of the GSMA will enable us to improve handset affordability, one of the barriers to 3G service adoption in the Philippines. We believe that there is a huge un-served, mass-market segment in the Philippines which this “3G for All” initiative will address; we look forward to 3G becoming a mass-market proposition within the next years. We commend the GSMA in its efforts to support the industry with a timely and effective market intervention ensuring that the price gap between 2G and 3G handsets is being narrowed by the delivery of this affordable, feature-rich 3G handset.
Inquirer.net also posted the news the other day that Smart made an announcement on the LG unit. The unit will retail for P6,290 (around USD$130) though I think they’ll be much cheaper in Greenhills and street stalls. Before this, there wasn’t any 3G capable phones out there that sells less than Php10 that I know of. On top of the 3G capability, the LG KU250 supports GPRS (but no EDGE), 10MB shared memory and external micro SD card slot, bluetooth and USB as well as a 1.3MP camera.
Second inline from the GSMA recommendation is the Nokia N6151 which has an almost similar features as the LG one but I guess the price was the major deciding factor.
I’m posting the title and the full body of the Press Release sent to me by one of Smart’s PR people. Will be having lunch with them next week so if you have specific questions you’d like me to throw their way, just leave a comment.
Continue Reading
While we were on the topic of broadband, I asked more about Globe’s Speak and Surf and found out some really juicy details about their new product. I believe this was also mentioned during our last meet-up when the Globe Team did their presentation.
- Out of the box solution for broadband internet and landline telephone.
- Use the wireless internet and the phone at the same time.
- Connects to Globe cellsites using a wireless modem/router via CDMA technology.
- Up to 256Kbps connection speed.
- Costs Php995 per month including the phone line.
- Free text messenging within the network (
500 SMS per month unlimited for the first 3 months)
I was told that this hasn’t been rolled out commercially but they’ve been doing rounds door-to-door. We should be seeing print ads and TV commercials by October. Hopefully, this would answer the growing complaints for a Smart Bro alternative.
Monthly rate is exclusive of handset rental fee which you can choose from any of these handset rental payment options:
1. Upfront payment of P7,200
2. P300/month for 24 months
For inquiries and applications, please call (02) 919-8888 for Luzon, (032) 410-8888 for Visayas and Mindanao or 171 Toll-free from any Globelines landline or payphone. or visit your nearest Globelines payments & services center now.
Globe’s broadband subsidiary Innove Communications has partnered with Intel to test out WiMAX for residents in Trece Martirez, Cavite. Trials for WiMax will be done by selected employees of Intel in Cavite. testing will be done in about 3 months and once this has been deemed viable, Globe might offer the service in Metro Manila in as early as 2007.
In a news article published in Manila Bulletin here:
The availability and pervasiveness of WiMAX-compliant equipment and communication tools will play a major role in determining the timetable for its commercial deployment. According to Intel, the main advocate of WiMAX technology, outdoor and indoor CPEs will be available between now and next year, costing between $350 and $400.
The second-generation CPEs, which will be indoor self-installable modems similar to a cable or DSL modem and will be priced around $250, are expected to be available in early 2007. Eventually, CPEs will be integrated in laptops which should become available in 2007-08, while cellphones with CPEs inside should come out in 2008-09.
Sounds pretty exciting to me. We should be able to get some competition for Smart WiFi with this, but WiMax is in a much better position to provide high-speed and reliable broadband internet in the country.
