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Fair Use Policy: Globe vs. Smart compared

The idea of a Fair Use Policy is nothing new and has been enforced, albeit discreetly, by telcos on a case to case basis. Both Smart and Globe have their own version of the Fair Usage Policy for their network services, be it SMS, calls and mobile internet.

That means any or all of the “unlimited” SMS, calls or mobile internet offers that the telcos offer have a numerical limit. That means if you subscribe to unlimited SMS for 1 day and you send out 1,000 messages in 1 hour, you will be cut off by the telco. Same is true with voice calls and mobile internet.

This measure is done to prevent abuse of the network. Besides, we also don’t want SMS spam or email spam right?

Of course, these Fair Use Policy has their own specifics on what is acceptable and normal usage. Smart has made it a standard to have new subscribers sign a waiver stating they agree to these FUP. Globe has a similar one but it’s on fine print.

Here’s the information we have on both Globe and Smart Fair Use Policy. They are lifted from their website, subscriber contracts and waivers.

Base don surveys from different postpaid subscribers of both Smart and Globe, these restrictions are not really observed. That is why we have folks who are still able to use their LTE connection way beyond the one indicated in the FUP (so lucky you if you are one of them who are heavy users but still enjoy the unlimited LTE speeds).

Our understanding is that this FUP are put in place as a legal safeguard to immediately allow the network or the telco to take action in cases where there is blatant disregard or exploitation of the network resources. We’ve personally experienced and recorded what happens if you reach your data cap (see story here 23).

Note though that there are exceptions to this FUP. Smart considers data roaming as an exception since you are billed by the KB or MB by the partner carrier. Globe exempts PowerSurf from the 1GB per day limit since that promo has its own bandwidth allocation.

And based on our research from all 12 or so other countries that we’ve visited last year and used their mobile internet, ALL of them have these Fair Use Policy. It’s only a matter of how much SMS or bandwidth is actually considered normal use.

Our suggestion — call a spade a spade. If it’s 3GB per month, then call it 3GB. If it’s just 1.5GB allocation, don’t call it unlimited. That’s how they do it in other countries.

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Avatar for Abe Olandres

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

158 Responses

  1. Avatar for Jerome Jerome says:

    Worst of all is Smart network. After exhausting your allowable minutes for your unlimited promo, you won’t be able to call again until your promo expires. The telcos should not use the word UNLIMITED on their data, text, and call promos. It’s a form of DECEPTION. Scamming Filipino people. ?

  2. Avatar for Jon Jon says:

    Where can you find Smart and Globe’s Fair Use Policies? Links to Smart’s policy leads to here http://smart.com.ph/corporate/message/notfound.html and links to Globe’s policy leads to here http://www.globe.com.ph/page-not-found
    I just want to see what they actually say about unlimited texts.
    Thanks.

  3. Avatar for Isriel Baclaan (@IBaclaan) Isriel Baclaan (@IBaclaan) says:

    Mas maganda sana eh tanggalin ang limit kasi may mga naapektuhang mga nagtatrabaho lalo na kami tuwing may Webex meeting.

  4. Avatar for ian ian says:

    Burahin na lang nila yung word na “UNLIMITED” para di na mag expect yung mga subscribers. ;) puro pagcocompetition tapos di naman totoo. Mas ok yung wag na sila magpaasa.

  5. Avatar for Rv3 Rv3 says:

    I don’t really mind the FUP and limits but what I disapprove of is the “unlimited” in their promos and plans. I don’t care as long as they stay true to what they say. IT IS NOT UNLIMITED IF IF YOU’RE GONNA LIMIT IT TO 1GB PER DAY OR WHATEVER! Sorry for the caps lock but they say unlimited to mislead their customers and these telcoms deserve to be sued or shut down. If possible let another country or company take over our telcoms. It doesn’t matter unless these scammers(Globe, Smart, etc.) change the way they do business.

  6. Avatar for Jim Em Jim Em says:

    I have a net meter on my computer (codebox.org.uk) and found that Globe is manipulating the net to give the illusion of net bandwidth over use.

    I do a lot of high GB downloading from the states, such as photographs that are large files, 200 mb or more, sometimes receiving and sending large batches of them up to several GB’s at a time. I immediately ran into the fair use policy and Globe told me it was the country wide law, which is a lie. I then set up a VPN which got around that, then installed the net meter and saw exactly what they were doing.

    In normal use of the net, during high traffic times the net should naturally slow down, much like a valley between two hills. In low use times such as late at night, early in the morning it should go up, like a hill, slowly till it reaches a peak. It does not do that at all. It spikes up, then stays at that peak for hours, then suddenly drops down like the net fell off a cliff. Sometimes on the weekend it remains at maximum, like they don’t have someone in the office flipping the net meter switch. That, of course, is clear that Globe is manipulating the net to give an illusion of high and low traffic.

    My advice, sign up for 1 step up in bandwidth, I think that is 3mbs per second (another bogus way they make money, the net is NOT THAT FAST unless you have a very expensive T-1 or greater connection, which is used by big businesses) which that jump up will cost you about 100 pesos more a month and GET A VPN so that Globe can not measure your net usage. My upload speeds have not increased much, but my download speeds have gone from 150 max kbs per second to 350 max kbs per second. But that is still dependent on how Globe artificially throttles the net up and down. The VPN will also hide your identity, while I am in PI, my ISP is listed in Los Angeles, or Hong Kong, sometimes Japan, I can choose which one I want. The VPN will cost you about $10 a month or 400p. It is well worth it if you do a lot of video streaming, downloading, and use the net hours a day. I use express VPN, there are many others out there, google it.

  7. Avatar for slow net slow net says:

    Ok lng fup basta mabilis net at sa illegal downloading lng nila ilalagay…since un nmn ang dahilan ng pag lalagay ng fup nila…kaya bakit ako mag susuffer kung nanuod lng ako ng vid sa youtube…illegal ba ang manuod ng vid sa youtube???

  8. Avatar for slow net slow net says:

    Fup pag umabot sa data limit…kalokohan…ehhh kakastart mo palang mag subscribe sa net parang fup na ang bilis…hays…tama na ang globe dapat ang mag upgrade at hindi i downgrade ang mga subscribers nila…

    • Avatar for NO TO FAIR USE POLICY CAMPAIGN NO TO FAIR USE POLICY CAMPAIGN says:

      Tama.,. Yung Normal Speed nila mabagal na, ano pa kaya kung biglang naFUP at nireduce nila ang normal speed mas lalong mabagal.,., halos hindi mo na magamit.,., loading parin., haixt.,. thats life!!!!

  9. Avatar for Anonymyx12345 Anonymyx12345 says:

    alam nyo po para dun sa mga nag sasabi na fair etong ginagawa ng globe na pag throttle sa speed natin after ma reach ang limit eh mag isip isip po kayo… hindi po tayo ang dapat mag adjust ung globe po dapat why not upgrade their equipments dba? nagbabayad po tayo hindi po tau nag hahack :)

  10. Avatar for Various Various says:

    Globe Telecom, please stop fooling people. Globe offers the worst services. I’ve been in their customer service office in SM Dasma for a week now and they still are not able to resolve “their own” technical issue. Their representatives keep on telling me that it has already been forwarded to their IT department and that all I can do is wait. It has been a week now. I also realized that their offices are full of people complaining about their bad services while the SMART office beside them is also full of people subscribing to their services. I can see why people do not like Globe anymore. This is my first and last time using Globe’s services. I am very disappointed. It also pains me to see how they advertise to people knowing that they are not able to provide the services that they offer. People, please be aware of their crappy services. The rumors about them filing bankruptcy really start to make sense now. Goodbye, Globe.

    • Avatar for Jim Em Jim Em says:

      A while back, my DSL modem went out that Globe gave me. So I carried it into the office only to be told a technician had to come out and replace it. So I called them and they told me they were having net problems in the area and as soon as the net was working, I should call them. How am I to tell if the net is ok or not if my modem doesn’t work???? No matter how I tried to tell them the modem was dead, they kept repeating the same thing over and over, like they were reading from a page. I then tried to buy a DSL modem only to find that no store carried them, so I had to wait for two weeks, dozens of phone calls to get someone to come out to give me a new one.

      How hard can that be?

      I have had net connections in 4 countries, the USA, China, Thailand and now PI and by a major league mile, Globe is the worst. I have never had such bad customer service, and the lack of customer service turned me into a screaming idiot trying to get a simple thing done.

      The problem I see is corruption, the govt won’t do a thing because Globe (and Smart) grease the palms of the officials, both elected and appointed, and the newspapers won’t take them on because they are a huge source of adverting revenue. Thus the people are getting screwed up the wazoo and there is very little we can do about it without advocates in government and media.

  11. Avatar for cez cez says:

    Question lang., kaka upgrade ko lang kasi sa smart unlisurf 1500..pag ba nag exceed sa 1.5gb data usage, hihina lang ang connection.?or a add up yan as charges? Help please. im currently hitting 10gb n kasi for almost a month of data usage.mejo heavy user din kasi ako..ur response is highly appreciated.thanks!

  12. Avatar for RipOFF RipOFF says:

    Simple, who much would it cost me to benefit from the same amount/speed/quality than other country (more than everywhere else and double that for a 2nd ISP during incessant down time)

    Poor 3rd world country Pinoy, we Must pay more because we are poor, uneducated and have no means to protect/defend ourselves….

    PROUDLY PINOY
    -ashame of my government
    -ashame of my males citizen
    -ashame of my family structure
    -ashame of my education system
    -ashame of my racist mentality
    -….well

    JUST PLAIN ASHAME of MY CULTURE!

  13. Avatar for lester lester says:

    Kaya nga po nag suscribe ng unlimited kasi unlimited ang gamit sira ang utak mo….. kakahiya naman mga network natin jan pinas punta ka saudi 21mbps sobrang bilis teka nga benifits yan kaya nga nag unli para unli rin….

  14. Avatar for Kerpz Kerpz says:

    teka lang, medyo malabo yata ang nababasa ng iba o mahina lang talaga umintindi???? di ako maka smart nor globe. Ang intindi yata ng mga taong mahina ang kukutz sa UNLIMITED SURFING IS UNLIMITED DOWNLOAD RIN??? basa basa rin kasi pag me time… sa mga naka postpaid naman jan, basahin nyo rin yung contract bago pumirma, pwede kayong magtanong pag meron kayong di naintindihan sa policy lalo na yung FUP.. pinoy nga naman, puro reklamo, libre po ang pagbabasa sa internet o anumang bagay na pwede nyo malaman before signing the contract. Ang hirap kasi pag nag aapply ng postpaid excited agad di na nagbabasa o nagtatanong sa mga policy.. susme…

    FYI: Surfing means “browsing”
    downloading means getting data from the internet in terms of “FILE” in which the FUP is applied:) sana maintindihan na yan ng mga reklamador pero walang alam kaya di umaasenso:)

    • Avatar for moonman moonman says:

      Seryoso ka ba? You don’t deserve access to the internet kung di mo alam na ang surfing ay kumakain din ng bandwidth

    • Avatar for kepyas kepyas says:

      inutil ka. hindi mo alam pinagsasabi mo

    • Avatar for razz razz says:

      bobo mo naman. yung browsing, nagdodownload din yan ng mga “FILES”…

      browsing – downloading of html,php, jpeg files.

      BOBO mo!!

    • Avatar for luke luke says:

      tanga ka rin ano. ang postpaid users na matagal nang nakasubscribe sa plan ay bigla na lang nagksroon ng fup sa kanila. papaano mo naman babasahin yung nasa kontrata kung di pa ito nag eexist noon? gamitin kasi ang utak. pag nilagay sa kontrata yung limited na unlimited wala nang kukuha maski na sino pag nalamang di pala unlimited.

    • Avatar for Sarah Sarah says:

      Are you for real? Nakakahiya ka. Nagmamarunong na nga puro pa katangahan ang pinamalas.

      The moment na may kinlick kang picture sa Facebook, you download data. You want to send a Tweet? you upload data. You want to watch a viral video on Youtube? you download data. You fucking open Google and you are already downloading data. Downloading is NOT just saving files on your computer idiot. It is practically everything you do when you are on the internet.
      Another thing, Globe and Smart implemented this bullshit way before they decideded to inform the general public. Our contract never mentioned limited data usage. They advertised their product as unlimited and we bought that product, only to find how limited the time we can enjoy it.
      We can’t even unsubscribe because of the shitty contract. Those companies are frauds and to think they are filipino companies.. shame.

      Ikaw ang tunay na inutil. isara mo bibig mo, wag ka nang magpopost kasi halatang mahina yang utak mo.

    • Avatar for June Philippines June Philippines says:

      Hahaha… ito ang pinaka bobong comment na nabasa ko today. Kapag nagbobrowse ka sa net, you’re downloading text, images, etc sa system cache mo to display the website sa browser mo.

      Nagsusurf ka sa internet, downloading pa din yun. TANGA YAK.

    • Avatar for Anonymyx12345 Anonymyx12345 says:

      na try ko na ma reach ung 800mb limit kaka surf lang ng websites xD ok na ok dba thumbs up xD

  15. Avatar for Kenjie Kenjie says:

    Eh ako laging may nag lmemessage sa globe fair use policy tamalng naman anng bilis bagal pa nga eh 100kbps per sec lng tapos magmemessage magiging 2 kbps per secc bagal ng globe nerereduce ang speed..

  16. Avatar for Kenjie Kenjie says:

    Eh ako laging may nag lmemessage sa globe fair use policy tamalng naman anng bilis bagal pa nga eh 100

  17. Avatar for pong pong says:

    ok sana yan FUP na yan eh.. pero sana may option to subscribe per GB kung di talaga unlimited. kaso walang option na ganun.. kinocompare nila sa ibang bansa na nakaindicate sa plan mo yung amount of data per month, na pwede din i-upgrade, unlike dito ginagamit ang word na “unlimited”, pero very limited naman. kung madalas ka nagmomobile internet(even without downloading huge files). ako gamit ko iphone ko daily to surf the net, check fb ..etc. pero di ako nagdodownload ng huge movie(usually streaming lang sa youtube, pero narereach ko kaagad yang cap na yan, eh pano na lang yung time to upgrade na yung IOS or yung apps na minsan 400mb~2gb… saka legally download yun via Itunes, ang cap ng apps is 50mb, na usually may update 2-3 times a week. nililimitihan nito ang sulong ng technology.

  18. Avatar for Keen Keen Keen Keen says:

    ok sana… kaso lamang “unlimited” ang detail sa promo. so please wag nyo kaming utuin mag network providers !

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