Smart Communications Tops NTC Network Quality Tests Again

Smart Communications has again top the National Telecommunications network quality test, besting Globe Telecom in all five categories.  The NTC tests the following:

1. Blocked Calls or Grade of Service (GoS)—percentage of calls that were not given access by the network.
2. Dropped Call Rate (DCR)—percentage of on-going calls that were involuntarily terminated.
3. Average Receive Signal Level—signal strength that was being provided by the serving cellsite to the mobile handset of the subscriber while a conversation is on-going.
4. Average Signal Quality—the quality of voice transmission while a subscriber is using his mobile phone. The closer to “0”, the fewer errors in transmission.
5. Call Set-Up Time—time required for the network to activate the called party

Smart also topped Globe in the two previous tests conducted by the NTC, outscoring Globe 5-0 and 4-1 in two tests conducted in 2012.  

Source

Asus Memo Pad - US$149 tablet

Following the US$150 Acer Iconia B1 tablet which is priced to penetrate a new segments of the market, Asus has also announced its own low cost tablet which will sell for US$149.

The Asus MeMo Pad will come with a 7-inch, 1024 x 600 resolution display, 1GHz Cortex A9 processor  on a VIA WM8950 chipset (now that a blast from the past). The tablet features a Mali-400 graphics chip, 1GB of RAM and 8 GB internal storage with microSD card slot and WiFi connectivity. The operating system is Android 4.1, Jelly Bean. 

Don't expect to see this soon though. The MeMo Pad is expected to ship in the second quarter of this year.