Huawei continues to improve its very popular line of pocket WiFi, the latest of which is the E587 that claims HSPA+ speeds of up to 42Mbps. We already reviewed the first Huawei E5 before as well as the E586 and if you’ve already read them, go and proceed to our Huawei E587 after the break.
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Yesterday, PLDT and Intel held a joint event to present a partnership for the PLDT WiFi Zone and the Intel-powered ultrabooks. They didn’t really share anything concrete plans bewteen the two brands but it was an opporunity for me to ask a lingering question — can paid public WiFi still survive in this time of cheap mobile internet and free public WiFi?
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Based on the exhaustive discussion we had with the technical group that’s in charge of the beta testing for Smart LTE yesterday, here are several of the more important information we got from them.
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Since October 1, Smart has switched the plug on their Smart Bro Rocket Plug-It to use volume-based data pricing (same as Always On). The recommended bucket plan is Php200 per 180MB. So I tried it on my Rocket Plug-It to see how much I’d consume in a day.
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Just learned today that Smart has apparently retired the Smart Bro Share It device they introduced back in 2009. Wanted to have my unit replaced since it conked out a few weeks back.
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In the recount of what happened yesterday regarding my hacked Paypal account, I realized that it was my GMail that was originally compromised and used to reset my Paypal password.
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Smart now has their own version of a portable 3G+WiFi router they called SmartBro Pocket WiFi. This new product competes head-on with Globe MyFi launched back in July.
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I’ve been using Smart’s UnliSurf offer (UnliSurf 50) for some time now especially when going out of town and use the Smart Buddy Prepaid SIM card with a USB dongle. The offer is now available with SmartBro Prepaid SIM cards too with the new UnliSurf 100.
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There will always be claims of product/service superiority among competing companies and the one between Smart and Globe is a classic example. The latest one is the battle between mobile broadband services Globe Tattoo and Smart Bro.
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I’ve been on prepaid since I got a mobile phone ten years ago. The only time I was convince to get into a postpaid plan was when I got an iPhone 3G subscription plan from Globe. And for the last 12 months, I thought it was well worth it.
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Most of you might have already seen the banner ads here for about a month now but the landing page didn’t really give much detail. It’s actually a Smart Bro laptop giveway — that’s an HP Mini 2133 every time you top up your Smart Bro Prepaid.
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A new poster ad from Smart Bro promotes their broadband speed to be up to 2Mbps. The operative word is “up to” but that’s still a huge jump from the previous 384Kbps.
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Update: The Smart Bro Microsite, Sugod Na just went up. Check it out here!
As most of you may have notice, I’ve got ads up for the new Smart Bro Prepaid. Couldn’t blog about it until the banners were up.
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My friend just handed out this pamphlet from Smart Bro announcing a new promo called WiFly. Basically, this is an add-on service to existing SmartBro (formerly Smart Wifi) customers to avail of unlimited AiborneAccess account for an additional Php99 a month.
Here are some details of the WiFly Promo:
- The WiFly Promo will un from October 16, 2006 to January 15, 2007 with a 6-month coverage at an additional fee of Php99/month (VAT-inclusive) on top of their SmartBro subscription fee.
- Only active SmartBro 999 subscribers can automatically apply for the promo. Existing Smart Wifi 988 and Smart Bro 788 can upgrade to Smart Bro Plan 999 to be eligible for the WiFly Promo.
- Upgrades to Smart Bro Plan 999 will get a free one month WiFly to be effected on 6th month.
- Lock-in period for the WiFly subscription is 6 months. You will still be billed if you pre-teminate. You also need to inform Smart Broadband Inc., if you want to terminate after the 6-month lock-in period.
- Only one Smart Bro subscription per one WiFly account. No multiple logins will be allowed for the Airborne Access account.
A complete list fo the Terms and Conditions can be found at www.smartbro.com.ph/smartbro.
Now, that’s a really cool deal there. For just Php99, you also get an unlimited Airborne Access account. Cool huh? At least if your Smart Bro account doesn’t wok, you could go out and hook up with one of them AA hotspots. *hehehe*
With so many Smart Wifi/Bro plans, I think this promo was done partly to standardize the subscription plans to Php999 and earn a few more bucks off of the subscribers.
Still, IMHO, the promo alone is a great deal (IF you have a laptop). How about Smart Bro subscribers sell these promo account to friends and colleagues for say Php1,000 for 6 months? Good deal and the customer also profits Php406 from it. *hehe*
The SmartBro installation team just arrived here at my place to hook me up. Took them about 30 minutes to install and configure my account and I’m now running on Smart Bro (Just one of my desktop PCs. My laptop and other PC is still on myDSL.).
First off, some speed tests:
PLDTPlay: 260.3 kbps
GlobeQuest Utilities: 235.0 kbps
2Wire: 99.50 kbps
TestMy: 113 kbps
Smart Bro top speed: 384kbps
During the installation, I talked with the two tech guys and explained to them my arrangement with Smart. The tech guys were actually a bit curious why my account was different, at least that’s what the designated subscriber code says. They added that the subscriber code I am using is for internal use and usually assigned to COs. I told them I hope it does not affect my connection speed from that of a regular subscriber.
The above speed test results would indicate I am in no better luck than any other subscriber. Ok, on with the testing.
Btw, remeber that wifi incident last week at Malate? The techs did confirm to me that it’s something they’ve also encountered before and when they reported it back to the NOC, they were told that it’s for an experimental hotspot. Looks like Airborne Access is going to have some internal competition of sorts.
I was with Ajay all evening last night at Starbucks Adriatico in Malate for some very confidential undercover project. :p
Thinking that the Starbucks branch there had Airborne Access internet, I brought my laptop with me so we could do some online stuff. I was mistaken.
However, there was this wifi access point available somewhere which my laptop detected. The name of the network suggested that it was from Meridian (or SmartBro) but I was surprised I was able to connect to the network. Surfing wasn’t any good though as I could not get anything.
A few re-connection tries later and my browser was pulling some web page. I really though I got in but again got surprised again that I was redirected to the Smart Bro Portal page. I took a screen shot below:
Was that supposed to happen? I entered my Airborne Access account hoping that, since Smart/PLDT also owns AA, I could login successfully. Nay. What if I use a SmartBro account?
