Over 8.3 million Filipinos now have Internet access via Smart's services

MANILA, Philippines – Over 8.3 million Filipinos now have access to the Internet through the nationwide broadband and cellular networks of leading wireless services provider Smart Communications, the most number served by a Philippine mobile network operator.

Smart Broadband Inc. (SBI), the telco leader’s broadband unit, serves over 1.3 million subscribers while about seven million Smart subscribers surf the Web and access other Internet-native services through their mobile subscription, whether post- or prepaid.

This is expected to help increase the number of Internet users in the country which is pegged at about 29.7 million as of June 2010, or around 30 percent of the country’s estimated 2010 population of almost 100 million Filipinos, according to www.internetworld stats.com.

“We are seeing more Internet users in the Smart network than ever before. This helps us track the progress of our ‘Internet for All’ vision – that of bringing the benefits of the Internet more quickly to more Filipinos,” Smart wireless consumer division head Danilo Mojica said.

Smart offers various connectivity options under its Smart Bro portfolio, whether fixed wireless broadband technologies such as ‘canopy’ and Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (Wimax), or portable or ‘nomadic’ broadband options, such as USB dongle-style modems and data SIM cards, that may be used for mobile devices such as laptops or tablets. Even television sets were turned into an Internet appliance, when Smart launched early this year a device that can connect a TV set to the Web.

Mobile subscribers of the telco leader, both prepaid and postpaid, also enjoy mobile Internet, or access through cellphones that can connect to Smart’s nationwide, high-speed cellular network. A recent promo called TGIFreeday, which offered all mobile Internet services free for eight consecutive Fridays, triggered a three-fold jump in first-time users of mobile Internet among its 45.3 million cellular subscribers, according to Smart.

Smart’s low-end prepaid brand Talk ‘N Text also offers a service called ‘Koneknet’, which provides the lowest-ever mobile Internet rate of only P30 for five hours of browsing.

“We continue to expand this array of options in order to deliver as many access points to our subscribers as possible, at costs that are within their means, regardless of the device that they have in their homes or in their hands,” Mojica added.

While its various offers are helping drive Internet take-up among its subscribers, Smart said it is also fortifying its nationwide broadband and cellular networks, in anticipation of the sheer volume and cost of providing the requirements of a growing Internet-savvy population, with an equally growing appetite for speed and capacity.

“The good news, our networks are set up to cope, evolve with technology, and deliver more and more ways for people to connect. We have made and continue to make substantial investments to ensure that we have a robust backbone infrastructure to provide not just coverage - so that Filipinos in rural and remote areas now have the means to access the Internet - but also speed and capacity, in order for our subscribers in the urban areas, who have the more powerful devices, to have access to vast amounts of data transported wirelessly,” Mojica pointed out.