Latest public report from PLDT Investor Relations showed Smart Bro as the largest broadband service in the country with over 384,000 subscribers nationwide since it was first launched in June 2005.
In its 2008 1st Quarter report, PLDT revelead that Smart Bro’s subscribers surpassed PLDT myDSL service since end of 2007. PLDT myDSL has about 300,000 subscribers by end of March 2008 and 264k at end of 2007.
Based on their historical data I gathered from old annual reports, I’ve plotted the growth of Smart Bro since it was offered in June 2005.
Legend: Dark Orange bars: Total subscribers for the quarter. Light Orange bars: Number of new subscribers for that quarter.
In 2007, Smart Bro was able to more than double its subscriber base from 122k to 302k, a 148% increase. Despite the growing number of complaints about the service, it was able to gain the highest ever number of sales leads from January to March 2008 at 82,000 subscribers. Interesting numbers, huh? And the graph looks like the growth is exponential.
I couldn’t find the figures for PLDT WeRoam but from my computations, it’s somewhere between 13,000 15,000 subscribers. WeRoam is also considered part of PLDT’s broadband service. Don’t have the numbers from Globe and Eastern Telecoms but PLDT claims 70% share of the combined broadband market in the Philippines.
Fro copies of PLDT’s public records, download the Annual Reports from their Investor Relations webpage here.
Disclosure: Smart Bro is an advertiser of this blog.
Smart is one of the WORST and most CORRUPT companies in the world. Their advertising is FALSE. Their internet infrastructure is not properly equipped to provide true HSPA internet at ful speeds. I have a shareit router for 6 months now. The base station here has been BROKEN for a full 35 DAYS! All I get from the call center support is excuses and apologies.
I’m ready to smash this damned router with a hammer and bring it to the smart service center. I will place the pile of rubbish on their desk and LOUDLY proclaim that SMARTBRO SUCKS and I QUIT! Let them try to sue me for breach of contract- it was THEY who breached it by NOT PROVIDING SERVICE.
If you are considering the shareit router, DON’T DO IT! They didn’t even beta test it- that is what they are doing now, and CHARGING FULL rates to do it. As anybody knows, beta testing is NOT TO BE CHARGED for, it’s only for testing purposes. But Smart is so fucking greedy they will gladly steal your money as if you are a cash cow
Yup. Smart is as about as smart as a bag of hammers. My asawa and I signed up two weeks ago. The same day they showed up and installed an antenna and it worked great! We were so happy and pleased I was ready to tell everybody how prompt and efficient they were.
Ya, right. Two hours after they left the connection was lost. I got on the phone (globe) and called them. After going through all the press this button for this and this button for that it took four minutes to talk to service rep. He made me go through a bunch of systems check and then made an appointment for a techie to come and repair the canopy style antenna. The techie was late and in a hurry but it worked for about ten minutes after he left. I got on the phone again and the rep said they were doing upgrades to the tower. Ya right! I can seethe tower from here and saw no one up the tower. I rode my bike over to see if they were working at the base of the tower but saw no one. I asked the neighbors nearby the tower and they said no one had been there for weeks if not months. !st lie.
I called again the next morning and they were oh so sorry! Ya right! They said that they were actually doing upgrades remotely. Ya right! Said that if I would kindly wait for 24 hours my connection would be would fixed. Ya right. So I called again but while calling my load ran out! So far, I’m out P499 for the hook-up, and P300 for the globe load. I bought a new sim card fro smart so not to have to pay for the calls.
So far I’m out p499, P300, and P40 for the sim card and P300 for the smart load. I call again Again they say about the upgrades and please be patient for 24 hours. OK. After 24 hours I called again nd made an appointment for a techie to come and re align our antenna. Again the techie was late and I’m getting a little irate! But he fixed it in about 15 minutes and we had connection for about two hours. Si I called again and again they made go through all the nonsense of checking the systems on my computer. They then said a techie or rep would be calling to inform us when the techie would arrive to again re align our antenna. No call. After two days I called again with all the same procedures and BS. The rep said the techie would come by in the AM to find and fix the problem.
By noon there was still no sign of the techie. I called again. Same BS as before. The techie finally did show up after 2PM. I said enough is enough, don’t bother trying to fix it just take down the antenna because we no long have any confidence in Smart. They refused saying they were only authorized to make repairs. If I did not want the repair sign the refusal form. I lost it! I said get lost then and closed the door.
I called Smart today to cancel our subscription…..they said I have to go to one of their offices to unsubscribe and that I would have “TO PAY” P320 to cancel! I told the rep that according to our agreement if we were not satisfied with their service we could cancel without penalty with in two weeks. I also said that we would not under any circumstances go out of our way to take time and money to cancel.
Before hanging up on the rep I said that if they don’t come and get their antenna it could very well just stay there as an ornament as that is all it’s good for! I said I don’t like being lied to and that they had cause unreasonable frustration and mental anguish as we have been without an internet connection for two weeks and felt like a prisoner under house arrest held incommunicado.
In short, I kissed their butt for two weeks, now we are with Globe for two days and it’s cheaper, more reliable and faster than Smart ever was. It is an almost a certainty that the cause was the guide line cables that support the antenna that if improperly secured loosen and the antenna’s focus on the tower is off by a degree or two.
PS. It’s now time for them to kiss my butt! I’ll make sure not to be home when they come for the antenna for a few times anyway. I wasted my hard earned cash for a worthless system, if all the revenge I can get is this then so be it, I will waste their time and money as long as I can.
PSS. Thanks for the opportunity to rant!
almost 1 month palang ako nakakabit di na me makaconnect ng tumawag ako sa customer service d nila alam ang gagawin ang sabi pa bnblock daw yun signal eh sa kanila naman galing iyon divice bakit ganon ang technician nila ay para sa internet lang daw walang pwedeng magservice sa bahay,tapos free installation daw pero siningil kami ng 1700 ng nagkabit ask ko lang mas oky ba ang globe broadband compared dito sa smartbroadband.pls sobrang stress na ko plano ko ng ipatanggal
smartbro is a bullshit!!!
kindly please help me what to do with my smart broadband connection. I have my wireless router but it does not function when i connect to smart broadband connection… are there any alternative on what to do… please give some procedure to follow on how to activate the wireless router using the smart broadband connection… thank you and more power….
SmartBro Plan 999 is the best, unlimited internet up to 1Mbps!
If u have any inquiries, just email and give me your location
smart****@****.***
Thanks.