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Smart 3G for real?!

Among the 4 telcos that were granted licenses to operate third-generation (3G) mobile networks, Smart looks like it’s on its way to serve up broadband speeds for mobile phones.

Of the lot Smart claims it got a perfect 30 from NTCs rating.

Among the companies that applied for a Third Generation (3G) license, SMART ranked highest, garnering a perfect score of 30 based on the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) 30-point grading system designed to gauge the capability of aspiring telco operators to massively and effectively provide 3G services.

As a result, Smart has been assigned the largest radio frequency allocation – 15 MHz compared to 10 MHz for the other operators. Moreover, it now has the choice of the best frequency spectrum. This will enable Smart to rapidly deploy its 3G network nationwide and also offer the highest quality 3G service to its subscribers.

“We have already ordered the network facilities needed to establish nationwide 3G coverage in the shortest possible time,” Smart President and CEO Napoleon Nazareno said. “We will repeat the rapid roll-out that we accomplished in deploying, first, our analog and then, our GSM network infrastructures. We are in 3G for real.”

Get ready to experience technology that allows for faster data transmission speeds from 114 Kbps up to 2 Mbps. Soon, Smart subscribers here and abroad will benefit from the convenience of high-speed data communications and mobile multimedia services such as video conferencing, audio streaming and mobile Internet.

I highlighted the 2Mbps transmission speed. Taking into account their track record with Smart Wifi, I am not so sure if they’ll do any better with the 3G offering.

P.S.

So far, only the following mobile handsets are 3G capable : Nokia 6630, Nokia 6680, Nokia N70, Nokia N90, Sony Ericsson Z800, and Sony Ericsson K600. I’m sure more will come.

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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.

16 Responses

  1. Avatar for mitch depp mitch depp says:

    Same here bro. Nokia n95. 3g settings downloaded OTA. SMART. Phone set configured already. Pero pag try to get on the internet, “PACKET DATA NOT AVAILABLE, CHECK NETWORK SERVICES”. Hindi din maka send ng via MMS. Video calls, ayaw din. 3G? Parang hindi nag wowork? May problema ba ang smart sa 3G nila?? Thanks.

  2. Avatar for jetro_14 jetro_14 says:

    pre tulungan nyo q hindi q mkagamit ung 3G q my lumalabas n packet data not available check network services pag nagdo2wnload.. n activate q nmn n ung sim q pano gagawin q help me nmn dyan…

  3. Avatar for jessille jessille says:

    thank you! thank you!
    salamat sa inyo taga smart nakakapag internet na ako
    kahit 115kbps lang gamit ko p800. pero sana naman 2ruaan nyo ako na mataasan pa ito gamit ang p800SE ko. salamat

  4. Avatar for quezacolt quezacolt says:

    gamit ko ngaun 2ng smart 3g, 408kbps ang speed pero nung nag test ako sa speakeasy 81kbps lang ang lumabas hehe,

    pero mura sya 10 pesos lang,

  5. Avatar for keita keita says:

    pipz anu ba! npaka negative nio nman s smart 3g! Ive bin reading a lot of comment dati n way behind n tau s pgdating dyan s 3g and now n and2 n cya wlang kamatayng comment p rin! ngaung lumabas n ang mga prices for their services mukhang ok nman! ung walang kamatayng monthly bill for inet ay hindi cya applicable for prepaid kya shut up n lan plzzzz!!! try video calling me if u want basta lang bas2s ha! hehehe
    091942***** vid call na!

  6. Avatar for What A Joke What A Joke says:

    WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS????

    Another ploy to suck people’s money????

    HA!HA!HA!

    SMART robbing??? SMART stealing????

    Whatever…….

  7. Avatar for Melvyn Melvyn says:

    stupid thing in dual mode, you cant have a voice call if your phone sets to dual mode setting. you need to set to GSM mode to make a voice call and the hardest things is your phone will need to restart after changing the setting. Im referring to N70 phone i dont know with the other models.

  8. Avatar for Anthony Anthony says:

    Does anyone know what the SMART 3G Infinity Plan 8000 subscription consists of, and the cost of it? Their site mentions the plan but gives no details.

    My main concern is the broadband internet connection, via a computer. Is that what this plan offers, or is it strictly for cellphone web browsing?

    Does the 3G have nationwide coverage or only the big cities? I am looking for broadband internet service in Butuan, Mindanao. Yes, I know Smart-Wifi is available there, but might 3G be a better alternative, even though it is more expensive?

  9. Avatar for Rhoy2 Rhoy2 says:

    Really, I would be happy if they have unlimited plan for gprs (to be realistic). Their plan is too expensive, whereas in the states you can get unlimited gprs for $20 dollars a month which totaled about 1,000 pesos. There is no price regulation regarding Cellular carriers service in the Philippines, so pretty much they can charge people whatever they want. I bet 3G will cost an arm and a leg. Btw, Smart Wifi really sucks!

  10. Avatar for anonymous_user anonymous_user says:

    sows! kapal ng mukha ng smart mag launch ng 3g! they will just fraud people due to their dishonest services kagaya ng smart wifi broadband ni hindi nga nila mabigay sa mga subscriber yung true speed ng network nila then they will launch video calling? smart mhiya nman kau iUPGRADE nyo na mga bulok nyong equipments para di kau madyaryo dahil sa pandaraya nyo!

  11. Avatar for J. J. says:

    Ano ba naman additional na panloloko yan! Eh kung DSL pa nga lang nagkakapalpak palpak 3G pa kaya!! They’re just gonna hook up to the DSL Smart Wifi networks kaya lalong additional na kabagalan at askit ng ulo na mana yan not only samin mga DSL subscribers pati mga future 3G subscribers na lolokohin nila!!

    Jay

  12. Avatar for Bong Bong says:

    those networks who would be offering their 3g services needs to prove that they can provide 3g with less problems. they should be able to handle heavy traffic on a given moment, cellsite would be able to withstand storms, heavy rains,they have make more cellsites that are 3g capable, cellsites needs to be powerfull enough to cover with an environment with lots of high rise buildings.

    …they also need to keep the price of the service competitive.even with massive information campaign, not everyone would use 3g.(most would be contented of sending txt message,or mms or voice calls) seldom would you make video calls-unless importante…mahal kasi….

    at the moment…the networks here are offering 3g services by:

    – music download-parang i- tunes(about 64kps compression nga lang,otherwise ubos ang 128mb MMC mo agad.make it 128kps then you’ll have to pay more) for 3g data you pay for the data usage in mb rather than the length of time you’re “online”

    solution…why bother downloading them?nagkalat ang mga cd sa kalye sa pinas. if you would be paying 5 songs say worth like P6 for each song, you can buy the cd for a cheaper price then just burn it…data cable lang ang katapat nyan or memory card reader. tsaka minsan di maganda ang quality ng music kasi todo compressed na.

    another issue is, most 3g mobile phone models currently on sale doesn’t have enough big memory to store the music(unless it’s the SEW800i,W850-which are 2.5 g,W900, NokN91) so you must buy extra memory…which is expensive..

    -downloading video clips/MTV’s/movie clips

    solution:

    go to greenhills, most of the guys there who owns a pc there would be able to download these file for you since they had been compress for mobile phones use anyway, and it’s cheaper too.or bili ka na lang ng software to change mpeg 4 to dvix…

    be warned though: these files eats a lot of memory! honestly i wont buy the n91 phone either coz it the medium storage is microdrive….it could drain your battery a lot quicker…takaw kalog pa(para syang super liit na hard disk)sana compact flash generation 3 na lang nilagay nila…mas matibay pa to,tsaka x60 ang write speed..

    -internet browsing.

    well this is where 3g excells, data downloading..and it’s fast, really fast…380+kbps
    you pay for the information you use, and not the length of time your connected(parang gprs din kaya lang naka steroids)

    so for internet browsing,reading emails,it is just great! but, mobile phone screens are usually small…ang sakit sa mata kung magtatagal kang kakabasa dun. what i did was i bought a 3g data card from ebay,and it acted as a wireless modem for my sony vaio tr3 laptop. and it made my eyes less misserable.

    i think one of the groups who would benefit 3g services are the business sector.they would need high speed access online anytime,anywhere. PROVIDED you have enough cellsites to cover the Philippines.otherwise the service could switch to gprs and still pay a 3g premium..

    kaya kung sa mga major cities lang negosyo mo at nagkataon na me 3g coverage area on both ends, at least nagagamit mo yung binabayaran mo.otherwise kung alang 3g coverage yung kinatatayuan mo, bigla na lang mag su-switch automatically sa gprs yan(buti sana kung class 10 parati)sayang naman yung pambayad mo.

    -video calling

    at last reality na rin…able to see the person who you are talking to…provided the other person uses a 3g enabled phone…kailangan naka plaster cast din yung braso mo kasi ilalayo mo yung cellphone…nakakangalay yun(takaw nakaw din kasi mahahalata kang hawak mo CP mo,in case your in a public place)first, its all euphoria,,,until you realizes that you been talking to each other for more than 10minutes…tsk,tsk….and how much would smart charge video calling /minute?ahem…

    also please consider, making video calls makes you mobile phone’s battery drain 30%quicker…

    kaya sa mga unang gamit mo ng video calls,,,,nakakakilig….then pag nakita mo na yung babayaran mo….sasabihin mo sa kabilang linya: txt mo na lang mga sasabihin mo…low bat eh…

    at the moment i’m using the SE P900i: excellent resolution, bigger screen, great camera(better than the much praised carl zeis lens of N90) an mp3 player, good memory,radio with remote on an ipod white case……

  13. Avatar for Galit sa Smart Galit sa Smart says:

    Given smart’s track record for smart wifi, I’ll even doubt you can complete 1 min of video call due to heavy traffic.

    They shouldn’t offer the service if they can’t handle it (I’m betting my life they can’t handle it).

  14. Avatar for Bong Lejano Bong Lejano says:

    I live in U.K. and was able to see the transission of the uk networks to switch from 2.5g to 3g.

    at the moment, i am using 3g services for more than a year with my network and i am quite happy with regards to the service.(though i pay between £50-£65/month….grrrr)

    based on what i saw how 3g evolved here, most major networks here had waited and observed for 3 network to make 3g run smoothly. (there were some problems initially)and it was a difficult first year. cellphones were so big at the same time batteries rans out shortly(smart won’t be experiencing this because now, 3g phones now are smaller, more economical and more powerful), then the 3g coverage during that time was within major cities only(smart might do the same putting 3g coverage primarily in metro manila, maybe cebu and davao)also, during then the service was also expensive that people aren’t ready to embrace 3g despite massive information campaign

    for 3g to operate in the philippines, it must have the customers liking and support of the vast majority. and 3g isn’t cheap.. it would be really nice to be able to see the person you are talking to, but it is so expensive. most of the regular users here who normally has a contract with a certain network who has 3g capability can have an inclusive video/data calls as part of the package-and it ain’t much.

    for people who uses pay as you go(which you’re not abide by the contract) it cost a lot.usually 50p/minute on video calls.

    for smart there would be always a certain group of customers who would benefit this service only. but not the majority.also for one to enjoy 3g, they must buy a 3g enabled phones(forget nokia 6630, they don’t have the front camera remember?)

    another concern here is the cellsite that offer 3g services. as of now there are still some black spots here in england which you still cannot use 3g.(considering it’s almost 3 years since it was launched)most 3gcellsites are located on the major cities here.an example would be using a 3g datacard on a train trip going to the countryside.there are times that there’s a drop of speed and the data card automatically switches to 2.5g. this happens if the train is between 2 cities, and on the move.i know 3g data cards can automatically switch to 2.5g in case there is no coverage area…(try to imagine if you’re between lucena and quirino hi-way, can we have access to 3g services?) but thats the reason why we want 3g….we want full high speed internet access at all times..while on the move, anywhere and without any wires attached.

    i’m just wondering how smart would charge customers for using 3g…considering they would be spending a lot to just to build the 3g infrastructures..

    in my opinion…there are major uses for using 3g:

    1)multimedia-downloading music, short video clips
    2)data and information-if you have a mobile phone
    that can access html pages(provided you have a good screen size)or data card and be used as a modem which you can plugged in to you laptop.
    3)video calls

    as for the handsets which are 3g capable..
    -the n series nokia(i hope they make a bigger screen)
    -the sony ericsson w900i and p990 (my prefference)
    -motorola e1000(my old 3g fone)

    3g is good but expensive.video calling is addictive.and so is mobile phone internet browsing.

    just an opinion coming from an mcp member.

  15. Avatar for Paul Paul says:

    If Smart is going to charge by the kilobyte I don’t think many will use 3G Yuga.

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