Smart ends year with two major milestones

MANILA, Philippines - Despite the economic slowdown, natural calamities that wreaked havoc in the country and fierce competition, leading wireless services provider Smart Communications ended the year with two major milestones – 40 million GSM subscribers, and one million broadband users through its subsidiary Smart Broadband Inc. (SBI).

Smart president and CEO Napoleon Nazareno said they were able to achieve these by coming out with products and services that address the needs of the different market segments.

“We’ve also continued to roll out our 2G, 3G and fixed wireless broadband networks nationwide to reach even those in remote locations,” he added.

As of end-2009, Smart has extended the coverage of its cellular network to all of the country’s 1,619 cities and municipalities. Its broadband service covers the country’s major cities, through a network of 3G/HSPA cellular and fixed broadband base stations. Ninety-eight of its cell sites are powered by renewable energy source – wind and/or solar energy – an initiative that won for Smart in February 2009 the Green Mobile Award from the GSM Association (GSMA), the global trade group for the mobile industry.

In November, Smart had successfully completed testing of the most advanced broadband technologies such as HSPA+, Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access or WiMAX, and Long Term Evolution or LTE in various parts of the country.

“Broadband is the key to success in the increasingly converged world of telecom, Internet or data, and media. Smart has also been unrelenting in its Internet for All advocacy, making wireless broadband Internet more affordable and widely available – whether via mobile phone, the PC, or laptop – anytime, anywhere,” Smart chief wireless advisor Orlando Vea noted.

To hasten the growth of mobile broadband, Smart introduced Smart Bro Share-It in March 2009, a device which provides Internet connection and allows users to share their broadband access with other computers in a home network via WiFi using Smart’s nationwide high-speed packet access (HSPA) network.

Smart also made broadband access more affordable through various bucket-priced mobile Internet packages such as Unli Surf Daily, which provides 24 hours of unlimited, high-speed mobile surfing for only P50.

“While many of today’s needs can be handled by HSPA networks, we anticipate an explosive demand for even greater bandwidth as more users connect to the web and richer content proliferates. LTE can deliver enhanced broadband capabilities and provide the capacity to support the expected demand for connectivity,” Vea added.

“Through these offerings, we’re empowering our subscribers by putting the Internet right in the palm of their hands, at the least cost. This strengthens our ‘Internet for All’ advocacy of bringing the benefits of the Internet to more people,” Smare wireless consumer division head Danilo Mojica explained.

In May 2009, Smart introduced Sandbox, an online platform offering social networking, rich media content downloading, and other web services such as email and instant messaging. Accessible via PCs, laptops and mobile phones, Sandbox offers the convenience and innovation of choice content – such as songs, games, among others – delivered straight to the subscriber’s cell phone. 

In the second half of 2009, Smart launched several mobile email services, the first telco to make email as ubiquitous as voice and SMS. Smart worked with leading handset manufacturer Nokia for the launch of Nokia Messaging in the Philippines. It likewise partnered with Research In Motion (RIM) to offer prepaid, flat-rate, unlimited BlackBerry data packages.

In the last quarter of this year, Smart introduced on beta phase its own mobile email service, the country’s first daily, flat-rate, unlimited ‘push’ email solution, which differs from other mobile email services in that it works on all handset models, whether basic or advanced.

“In the same way that Smart’s innovative but affordable offerings made the use of voice and SMS ubiquitous, we would like to turn email into another universally available service on your mobile phone from which the everyday Filipino may benefit,” Mojica said.

Smart redefined “unli” in 2009 with the launch of Smartalk in June, and Smartalk Plus in September. These services enabled mobile subscribers to use just one phone, one SIM, and one number, to make unlimited calls to any number within the country’s biggest network.

Recognizing the needs of increasingly mobile Filipinos, Smart continued to make its products and services available via roaming in over 200 countries abroad, in partnership with over 400 network operators.

To provide a more affordable communications services to families of overseas Filipino workers, Smart unveiled Hellow, the country’s first reloadable international direct dialing (IDD) card.

Hellow can be used on any Smart or Talk ‘N Text celphone, to make calls for as low as P2.50 per minute to 17 key destinations where the most number of Filipinos may be found, via sachet-sized load denominations of as low as P15.

In 2009, Smart also boosted its Smart Link satellite services by providing e-mail services on top of voice services. Smart Link’s coverage has been expanded to include the entire Asia-Pacific Region, Indian Ocean, Middle East, Africa plus some parts of Europe and the Mediterranean.

Smart likewise steadily expanded and strengthened its mobile banking network, partnering with 18 major Philippines banks either directly or indirectly via two ATM consortia. Its new partner includes Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI).

Smart subsidiary Smart Hub, Inc. has also been tapped by leading global payments services provider MasterCard in developing the MasterCard Mobile Payments Gateway. Through this service, MasterCard is now working with South America’s largest financial conglomerate and Brazilian firm Itau Unibanco, Redecard, and Brazil’s leading mobile phone operator Vivo, to deliver mobile payments solutions to the bank’s customers.

Smart has also partnered with leading global money transfer company MoneyGram International to deliver enhanced remittance services to overseas Filipinos using its mobile commerce platform.

In 2009, Smart launched its Islands Activations Program (IAP), which brings mobile money transfer services to poor communities in the country’s remotest islands which are under-served or unserved by the formal banking system. IAP won for Smart the Mobile Money for the Unbanked Award at this year’s Mobile Asia Congress of the GSM Association. 

Smart also introduced an expanded mobile-based security feature for online purchases via Smart Money, enabling Smart Money users to pay for online purchases, free from the fear that they will be victimized by online fraud. This innovation won for Smart the Best Mobile Money Service Award at the Mobile Asia Congress of the GSMA.

In July 2009, Smart started to deploy WiMAX technology in the country. WiMAX or Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access is a technology that provides wireless broadband access to a wide area spanning several kilometers. By October 2009, Smarthad completed testing the powerful wireless broadband platform in 20 sites.

Smart’s WiMAX network will complement its high speed packet access (HSPA) network, which is based on the most advanced mobile broadband technology. SMART is the only Philippine telco and one of only a few in the world that have deployed HSPA running on 850 MHz which offers improved coverage for mobile broadband.

“With our HSPA, WiMAX, and Canopy networks blanketing the whole country, Smart will have a unique and by far superior combination of wireless broadband networks,” Vea said.

In October 2009, Smart successfully tested the HSPA+ technology, which delivered 3-4x the speed of its existing High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) service. In November, Smart marked another industry milestone as its network played host to the first ever network trial in the Philippines using 4G or Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology.

LTE or “4G” is part of Global System for Mobile communication (GSM) evolutionary path beyond 3G technology. It is touted as the ‘logical next step’ following today’s HSPA technology.