Just recently, Smart, the leading telco player in the Philippines announced August 25, 2012 the much-awaited release date of commercial LTE (Long Term Evolution) service which is in concentration in Metro Manila area. The announcement was made during the first Philippine LTE forum held in Makati last August 13. This event and the coming launch of the fastest mobile technology marks the start of strong dominance of Smart Communications in the broadband battle.
Long Term Evolution is a pure 4G- technology and the future of broadband. It speaks of the future trend of mobile technology- 2G and 3G service will soon be integrated to LTE. The blazing speed is a result of low latency and its flat network structure. When we say flat network, the complexity of architecture is lessen compare to 3G technology where it requires aggregation first before the handover of data to the internet.
Last year up to the first half of 2012, Smart undergoes beta testing for the LTE service in various locations such as Boracay, Manila, Davao, Cebu and Baguio. From the test results, up to 81Mbps throughput is the highest rate so far.
Smart LTE became possible through the partnership with different telco vendors such as Huawei and Nokia Siemens Network (NSN). These two vendors will be the partners behind the predicted successful launch of LTE in the country.
Smart is the pioneer in the Philippines for the LTE offer. In the Southeast Asia, we are second after Singapore for this new technology. M1 of Singapore launched LTE commercially last year. We are lucky to have Smart, which always grab the latest tech in the market and don't let us behind in the world of technology.
Smart commercial LTE will use 2100Mhz frequency as approved by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC). Smart future postpaid offering, Nokia Lumia 900 is said to be compatible with it's 4G frequency. We'll find out this soon maybe after 2 months for the list of mobile devices that can support Smart LTE. It was already confirmed that Apple's new iPad is not compatible due to the difference in frequency.
We heard that Globe is also preparing for their LTE as part of their $790 million dollar network modernization. From their press release, we could expect their LTE first in Davao region and not in Manila unlike Smart with pilot roll-out in the major capital. It only shows that Globe will going to lag for about 2 years before the release of their LTE. We would think that technology-wise, they are not the trendsetter and just observer on the aggressive move of Smart.
With the release of LTE in Metro Manila, we could expect some minor concerns about this new technology. Although beta testing is done but commercial offering is different.
Smart LTE has a promise to Live Faster and Live More . Download movies in minutes, stream videos in seconds and play games with no lags. We'll find out this if the campaign is right.
Smart has just confirmed the pricing of their new 42Mbps Smart LTE service. Their sign-up page outlines the details — 42Mbps, 10GB, at Php3,500 a month. The postpaid Plan 3500 comes with a free LTE dongle (worth Php8k). MSF is Php3,500.
Based from the reactions from the pricing above, many are not favored of the 10G capacity for just 1 month. They say that, you can only download for about 4-5 HD movies with that limitation. We should stay tuned if Smart will change the plan features.
Another item that you should check if you're going to register for LTE postpaid plan is the coverage of LTE and specific locations in Metro Manila. The other details of plan 3500 is sure to be released soon.
Check out Smart LTE and sign-up page here: http://www1.smart.com.ph/bro/lte
Register now! And download the event invite for the launch of Smart LTE.
Check-out #SmartLTE on Twitter for the real-time update.
Long Term Evolution is a pure 4G- technology and the future of broadband. It speaks of the future trend of mobile technology- 2G and 3G service will soon be integrated to LTE. The blazing speed is a result of low latency and its flat network structure. When we say flat network, the complexity of architecture is lessen compare to 3G technology where it requires aggregation first before the handover of data to the internet.
Last year up to the first half of 2012, Smart undergoes beta testing for the LTE service in various locations such as Boracay, Manila, Davao, Cebu and Baguio. From the test results, up to 81Mbps throughput is the highest rate so far.
Smart LTE became possible through the partnership with different telco vendors such as Huawei and Nokia Siemens Network (NSN). These two vendors will be the partners behind the predicted successful launch of LTE in the country.
Smart is the pioneer in the Philippines for the LTE offer. In the Southeast Asia, we are second after Singapore for this new technology. M1 of Singapore launched LTE commercially last year. We are lucky to have Smart, which always grab the latest tech in the market and don't let us behind in the world of technology.
Smart commercial LTE will use 2100Mhz frequency as approved by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC). Smart future postpaid offering, Nokia Lumia 900 is said to be compatible with it's 4G frequency. We'll find out this soon maybe after 2 months for the list of mobile devices that can support Smart LTE. It was already confirmed that Apple's new iPad is not compatible due to the difference in frequency.
We heard that Globe is also preparing for their LTE as part of their $790 million dollar network modernization. From their press release, we could expect their LTE first in Davao region and not in Manila unlike Smart with pilot roll-out in the major capital. It only shows that Globe will going to lag for about 2 years before the release of their LTE. We would think that technology-wise, they are not the trendsetter and just observer on the aggressive move of Smart.
With the release of LTE in Metro Manila, we could expect some minor concerns about this new technology. Although beta testing is done but commercial offering is different.
Smart LTE has a promise to Live Faster and Live More . Download movies in minutes, stream videos in seconds and play games with no lags. We'll find out this if the campaign is right.
Smart has just confirmed the pricing of their new 42Mbps Smart LTE service. Their sign-up page outlines the details — 42Mbps, 10GB, at Php3,500 a month. The postpaid Plan 3500 comes with a free LTE dongle (worth Php8k). MSF is Php3,500.
Based from the reactions from the pricing above, many are not favored of the 10G capacity for just 1 month. They say that, you can only download for about 4-5 HD movies with that limitation. We should stay tuned if Smart will change the plan features.
Another item that you should check if you're going to register for LTE postpaid plan is the coverage of LTE and specific locations in Metro Manila. The other details of plan 3500 is sure to be released soon.
Check out Smart LTE and sign-up page here: http://www1.smart.com.ph/bro/lte
Register now! And download the event invite for the launch of Smart LTE.
Check-out #SmartLTE on Twitter for the real-time update.
