[April 21, 2006]

Smart Rolls Out Smart Bro WiMAX Offering in Philippines

By Laura Stotler

TMCnet Contributing Editor

Smart Communications Inc. has announced its Smart Bro WiMAX offering for wireless broadband, an upgrade from its previous Smart WiFi (News - Alert) Brand. Parent company Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) will also be reselling Smart Bro in place of myDSL-W, a similar wireless broadband service brand.

The new Smart Bro offering is a fixed wireless solution offering broadband Internet access. It rides on Smart’s nationwide cellular network, and is representative of the PLDT group’s strategy to provide a wide range of broadband connectivity solutions. Smart has been able to rapidly roll out the service even in far-flung areas because it integrated many portions of the wireless broadband network with its existing GSM cellular network.

The new product will be marketed to subscribers with new promotional bundles. Since it was introduced in The Philippines in September of last year, wireless broadband has boosted Internet usage in the country. The uptake in the service is most apparent in rural areas, according to Napoleon L. Nazareno, president of PLDT and Smart.

At the end of 2005, wireless broadband subscribers accounted for 22 percent of the total number of broadband subscribers of PLDT and Smart. Broadband capacity and subscribers have been doubling every year since 2002 and, by the end of 2005, the number of broadband users of the PLDT group more than doubled to 114,000 from 48,000 as of end-2004.

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Laura Stotler writes about IP Communications and related topics for TMCnet. She has covered VoIP and related technologies for seven years, contributing to Internet Telephony magazine and TMCnet, and as a freelance writer. To see more articles, please visit: Laura Stotler’s columnist page.

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Discussions:


	wow its a great news,i hope more and more gsm networks shall introduce same kind of services in the future and,i hope this will affect the way of communications ,i am tired of making making costly calls to philippines ,i hope wimax service could increase the usage of internet telephony and infact i can call to my special one there in philippines ,over her wimax enabled mobile phone at cheap rates .wimax is the future of communication and we have lot of expectations from this technology.

By shahid

11/7/2007 7:44:45 AM


	http://beta.ph.news.yahoo.com/star/20080609/tbs-nt c-reallocation-bands-0ec9746.html NTC told to stop reallocation of broadcast bands Philippine Star Philippine Star - Monday, June 9 The Quezon City Regional Trial Court has ordered the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to refrain from further implementing a memorandum circular that reallocated certain broadcast or radio frequency bands to telecommunications or broadband wireless access (BWA) use. ADVERTISEMENT QC RTC Branch 218 Judge Hilario Laqui granted the petition for a writ of injunction filed by Altimax Broadcasting Company against NTC MC No. 06-08-2005, pending the proceedings of the main case filed by Altimax against NTC which is for the nullification of the said circular. It is not yet known has the injunction will affect the status of assignments already made by the NTC of the reallocated frequency bands although in case the court finally decides that the assailed MC is null and void, assignments made by the NTC based on said MC will also be rendered illegal. Based on NTC records, among the telecommunications companies whose assignment of BWA frequencies by the NTC are now in danger of being taken away are Innove Communications (2500-2515 Mhz), BayanTel (2515-2520 Mhz), Digitel (2520-2535 Mhz), eTelco (2545-2560 Mhz). Smart Broadband was also an awardee of a BWA frequency. Between the years 2004 and 2008, those that applied for BWA frequencies include Broadband Phils., Eastern Telecoms, PT&T, Worldwide Communications, INC-GEM, LBNO, Zenith Telecoms, and Racitelcom. Meanwhile, those assigned MMDS frequencies (from 2596 to 2644 Mhz) and whose frequencies were taken away by virtue of the assailed MC are Amado Ola, Atlocom, Altimax, ACWS, VOM, Cagayn Satellite, Sarraga Integrated, and Love Radio Network. MC 06-08-2005 , issued by the NTC on Aug. 23, 2005 , reallocated certain frequency bands for broadband wireless access (BWA) for fixed, nomadic, and mobile networks. These

By Francis Escobar

6/17/2008 5:51:54 PM


	Smart is not WiMAX!

By Juan

3/27/2009 3:27:38 AM


	RP gets tag as largest WiMax Internet broadband zone in region AS of June 12, the Philippines became the largest WiMax broadband Internet zone in Southeast Asia. Globe Telecom and Intel lit up the large-area wireless broadband for Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao marking the official rollout of WiMax in the Philippines http://philippinetelecommunications.blogspot.com/2 009/06/rp-gets-tag-as-largest-wimax-internet_28.ht ml NE http://philippinetelecommunications.blogspot.com/