SkyCable shakes market with 5Mbps P999 Internet plan

MANILA, Philippines - In a matter of one week, SkyCable Corp. introduced two new offerings that elevate its Internet package to the 5Mbps/15GB grade and its cable service to a new way of content consumption.

Skybroadband, the Internet service unit of the Lopez-owned SkyCable, offers the 5Mbps with 15GB usage allowance Internet package for only P999. This speed and space monster service plan, if it indeed delivers exactly what it promises, trumps down competition that usually gives out only 1Mbps for the same cost.

A 15GB data volume allowance can room 3,750 songs or 25 movies and support 125 hours of non-stop video playback and 586 hours of Internet telephony.

This consumable plan also includes free subscription to exclusive iWantv! content from the company. It also has a top-up option of P100 per 1GB more. SkyCable officials said this option is another first for the industry.

Those who require more may also opt for a similar 5Mbps plan but with a 35GB monthly data allocation for P1,999. This plan has the specs of a business-class, but still relatively affordable for the “economy class.”

Skybroadband, which is offering a 15-day free 5Mbps connection trial, currently has around 30,000 subscribers.

Digibox

Also something to watch out for — literally — is SkyCable’s Digibox iRecord, the country’s first and only digital video recorder (DVR) akin to the TiVo service in the United States and the StarHub in Singapore.

Rodrigo Montinola, SkyCable head for marketing, said his company is proud to be the first to introduce this type of technology in the Philippines, which is a nation of television enthusiasts.

The Digibox iRecord is a set-top box that connects to a TV set using an HDMI cable. It has an always-ready recording function that can be operated anytime or pre-set to record specific programs. In addition, it can simultaneously record up to two TV programs while a third program is on.

As a personal video recorder, the Digibox iRecord allows people to bookmark their favorite scenes for review, do slow-motion and frame-by-frame playback, and organize their video files in folders much like the file manager system in today’s computers. But its most revolutionary feature, perhaps, is the time-shifting or pausing of live TV broadcasts which gives people total control of their TV time and experience.

The actual piece of hardware is a silver-color box that is no way as sleek as many Blu-ray players today, but it has a big heart: a 320GB hard drive that is good for 145 hours of Standard Definition (SD) video or 86 hours of High Definition (HD) video.

SkyCable officials said these numbers translate to over 70 movie titles, or over 100 episodes of one-hour TV shows, or more than 80 documentaries of National Geographic HD.

The Digibox iRecord is available initially in Metro Manila. It has a P4,999 one-time charge for new SkyCable subscribers on top of the standard SkyCable packages.