Asia leads in growth of mobile broadband

MANILA, Philippines - Asia led global mobile broadband growth in the first quarter of 2011, recent numbers from analytics firm Point Topic showed.

It reported that the region enjoyed a 16.2 percent growth compared to the same period in 2010, bringing the total number of fixed broadband subscribers in Asia to 226.4 million by end-March 2011.

Locally, industry leader Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) and its wireless services subsidiary Smart Communications are both making a push in the market with the introduction of HOME Plan 1299.

Designed to make Filipino homes fully connected, HOME Plan 1299 combines an unlimited one Mbps broadband Internet connection (Canopy or WiMax) and a landline phone. HOME Plan 1299 will also come with one year’s worth of free PLDT-to-PLDT NDD calls.

“We’re very excited with the possibilities of HOME Plan 1299. This shows that even our fixed broadband products are major driving forces in the growth of the industry,” Smart home broadband department head Kathryn Carag said.

Smart and PLDT are currently undergoing a massive network upgrade. With P67.1 billion earmarked for updating and installing additional equipment such as cell sites, fiber optic cables, and international gateways, the telecoms conglomerate aims to provide only the best service to the Filipinos as its pursues its goal of providing quality Internet for all.

Earlier this month, a series of speed tests by independent engineering firm NESIC, Philippines Inc. (NPI) shows that Smart Bro subscribers are already benefitting from the improved network. NESIC’s results revealed that Smart Bro bests the competition 100 percent of the time in terms of average download speed.