Smart Re-brands Fixed Wireless
Broadband Service
SMART Communications says it has decided to drop its old brand
name for its fixed wireless broadband service "Smart Wifi" and
use a new name, "Smart Bro."
"Smart Wifi was not extensively advertised. It was marketed
below the line. So when the time came that this could be
promoted using tri-media, we thought of coming out with a better
brand. We're now giving it advertising push," Ramon Isberto,
Smart spokesperson, told INQ7.net.
Isberto said the new brand will "avoid the old name entirely,"
which was often confused with the wireless fidelity
communication standard. Smart Bro uses a different kind of
wireless communication technology.
"We could have done this [re-branding] earlier. Smart wifi brand
did not really register with people in our market research. So
this new brand gave us the freedom of movement given the
alternatives," he added.
As of December 2005, Smart said that there are about 25,000
subscribers of its fixed wireless broadband since the September
2005 launch. This wireless broadband subscriber base accounted
for 22 percent of the total number of broadband subscribers of
Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) and Smart, the
company said.
The subscriber base has grown further in the first quarter this
year, but Isberto declined to give details, saying it is
currently a "quiet period" for the PLDT group.
The company noted that the number of its broadband subscribers
has more than doubled to 114,000 in 2005 from 48,000 as of
end-2004, the company added.
The deluge of users affected the fixed wireless broadband
service of Smart in late 2005 leading to numerous complaints.
Following the incidents, Smart has announced the improvement of
its customer service systems and processes.
According to the operator, the number of call center seats
dedicated to broadband customers has been increased to 370.
Smart has also started improving its network, and is "currently
improving network facilities by deploying advanced radio base
stations and terminal equipment and installing upgraded
routers." It has also expanded the wireless broadband network's
core transmission backbone capacity up to 10 Gigabits (Gbps) per
second and its regional backbone capacity to 1 Gbps.
International transmission capacity has also been increased
significantly to further improve access to servers overseas, the
operator added.
Napoleon Nazareno, president and CEO for PLDT and Smart, said
the uptake in the service is apparent in rural areas where
information and communications technology infrastructure has
been lacking.
Smart said that it was rapidly rolling out the fixed wireless
services in far-flung areas, integrating portions of the fixed
wireless broadband network with the existing GSM cellular
network.
Promising Internet connection speeds of up to 256 kilobits per
second, Smart's fixed broadband wireless service allows people
to connect to the Internet using an aerial outdoor antenna
installed in a subscriber's home (usually located on the roof).
This antenna establishes a direct "line-of-sight" to the nearest
Smart cellular site offering the "strongest possible radio
frequency transmission," thereby creating the "last mile"
wireless connection to the Internet. The antenna can then
connected to a subscriber's desktop PC or notebook.
The subscriber's antenna should have a clear "line-of-sight"
alignment and be within a 1.5 kilometer. radius from a Smart
cellsite.
Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT), on the other
hand, would now resell the Smart Bro brand in place of its "myDSL-W,"
a similar wireless broadband service brand.
First
posted 09:57pm (Mla time) April 24, 2006
By Erwin Lemuel Oliva
Source: INQ7.net
|