Smart unveils new brand for broadband service
By Mary Ann Ll. Reyes
The Philippine Star 04/23/2006
Leading wireless services provider Smart Communications unveiled 'Smart Bro', the new brand for its wireless broadband offering, marking a move from its earlier Smart WiFi brand.
Parent firm Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) will also be reselling Smart Bro in place of myDSL-W, its similar wireless broadband service brand. Starting April 23, customers who avail of the Smart Bro service will enjoy new promotional bundles.
Sales and customer service processes are also being upgraded to improve the customer experience. Officials said the launch of Smart Bro underscores the strategy of the PLDT group to provide its customers with the widest range of broadband connectivity solutions and establish its leadership in the broadband market nationwide.
"We've combined the latest wireless broadband technology with the extensive network infrastructure of PLDT and Smart. Together with our fixed broadband offerings through PLDT's DSL service and our mobile broadband service with Smart 3G, Smart Bro will hasten the time when broadband becomes a basic communications service," Smart and PLDT president and CEO Napoleon Nazareno said.
Since it was introduced nationwide in September last year, wireless broadband has provided a welcome boost for Internet usage in the
"The uptake in the service is most apparent in rural areas where information and communications technology infrastructure has been lacking," Nazareno observed.
Numbering over 25,000 by yearend 2005, wireless broadband subscribers accounted for 22 percent of the total number of broadband subscribers of PLDT and Smart. Broadband capacity and subscribers have been doubling every year since 2002 and by end-2005, the number of broadband users of the PLDT Group more than doubled to 114,000 from 48,000 as of end-2004.
To further raise service quality levels, Smart is currently improving network facilities by deploying advanced radio base stations and terminal equipment and installing upgraded routers. It is also expanding the wireless broadband network's core transmission backbone capacity up to 10 gigabytes per second (Gbps) and its regional backbone capacity to one Gbps.
International transmission capacity has also been increased significantly to further improve access to servers overseas. Smart also announced that it is improving the customer service systems and processes that handle queries regarding the wireless broadband service.
The number of call center seats dedicated to broadband customers has been increased to 370. Smart has been able to rapidly roll out the service even in far-flung areas because it integrated many portions of the wireless broadband network with its existing GSM cellular network.
Smart Bro is a "fixed wireless solution" to provide broadband Internet access. It rides on the nationwide cellular network of Smart to wirelessly deliver broadband Internet service to a subscriber's personal computer, eliminating the need for a physical cable or phone line. The "wireless" connection is established from a wireless broadband radio base station at the nearest Smart cell site to the subscriber's home via a Smart Bro antenna.
Cables connect the antenna to the subscriber's PC. To enjoy the strongest possible high speed Internet connection, the subscriber's antenna must have a clear "line-of-sight" alignment and be within a 1.5-km. radius from a Smart cell site.
"The service brings broadband Internet to places that in the past were beyond the reach of the world wide web. Hopefully, broadband will open up new opportunities for businesses, education, and e-government all over the country," Nazareno said.
Initially, Smart Bro is available at one package at P999 monthly, VAT inclusive. Subscribers will need a PC with Pentium II or higher, 128 MB RAM or higher (preferable 256 MB RAM), Ethernet/ LAN Card, at least 10GB of hard disk space and operating system of Windows 98, 2000, XP, Linux or Macintosh OS.
http://www.philstar.com/philstar/NEWS200604230704.htm
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