SMC's wi-tribe broadband service goes unlimited

MANILA, Philippines - Broadband provider wi-tribe is providing its customers with a new unlimited, more reliable and faster Internet service.

“We listen to our customers and we deliver what they want. That’s why we are proud to announce that we are now removing the monthly data allowances and instead offering our customers truly unlimited Internet service,” according to Edmund Pike, wi-tribe’s products head. 

wi-tribe Telecoms Inc., a joint venture of San Miguel Corp. (SMC) subsidiary Liberty Telecom and Qatar Telecom, is beefing up its network capacity as it jumped on the bandwagon of unlimited services in the telecom industry in a bid to expand its subscriber base.

“We are now removing the monthly data allowances and instead offering our customers truly unlimited Internet service,” Pike explained.

According to him, the clamor to remove data caps on its previous plans pushed the budding telecom firm to just let its subscribers surf all they want.

 “With today’s announcement of the removal of our data caps, we believe we now offer the best value broadband service in the market,” Pike said.

Previously, wi-tribe’s packages were: P598 for a speed of 512 kbps and a maximum of 1 gigabyte of data, P998 for one mbps speed and six GB data, and P1,998 for two mbps speed and a 12 GB data cap. Starting June, the data caps on these packages were already taken out. wi-tribe is utilizing Wimax technology, a fourth generation (4G) technology, to service its 55,000 subscribers from Metro Manila and some parts of Rizal.

Earlier, Liberty chairman and SMC president Ramon S. Ang said they are aiming to double their subscriber base by yearend.

Simon Burckhardt, wi-tribe chief commercial adviser, said the company will initially focus in Metro Manila but it also intends to go beyond the metropolis.

“There is still a huge potential in Metro Manila. We still see growth in new broadband subscribers in our current market space,” Burckhardt said, adding that its network coverage in the area is already at 90 percent.

He also said that apart from new subscribers, more users from other telecom providers are now shifting to wi-tribe.

“The advantage of being small and being dedicated to just providing Internet services is that our network can handle the traffic volume of all our subscribers,” Burckhardt said.

He added that very few of its base stations are reaching anywhere near their maximum capacity.

Despite being a newcomer in the telecom market, Burckhardt said wi-tribe is backed by SMC and Qtel that provide both financial and technical muscles to the barely two-year old telecom firm.

wi-tribe was commercially launched in the Philippines in February 2010. The wi-tribe brand, which originated in Qatar, was also launched in Jordan in 2008 and in Pakistan in 2009.

While other networks utilize both 2G and 3G technologies, wi-tribe has a broadband Internet service that is pure 100 percent 4G. wi-tribe’s network is specifically built for data traffic and doesn’t have to carry other services such as voice and SMS. That’s why their customers enjoy fast and reliable access, company officials said.

Being among the world’s top five WIMAX operators and part of the QTel Group, wi-tribe pioneered 4G in the Philippines in February 2010. 4G is the latest generation wireless data network technology, that delivers speeds of up to three times faster than 3G.