Undoubtably, between Smart Communications and Globe Telecom, the former has a fair lead in the deployment of LTE technology. The problem is, they do not have a clear LTE policy yet. If you got a new Apple iPhone 5 last year, you had free LTE until April 30, 2013. The LTE "promo" has been extended to June 30, 2013.
If you are planning to get one of those nice new LTE handsets, like a Samsung Galaxy S 4 or Sony Xperia Z, you also get LTE connectivity till June 30, 2013, after which time what Smart does next is not clear.
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| Notice the fine print "Until June 30, 2013" |
In the case of Globe Telecom its regular data plans are also LTE plans.
Basically, if you are like me, you are a Smart Subscriber about to renew his contract, it is pretty confusing at Smart right now. It feels like Smart is not sure what it wants to do with its LTE plans, and unfortunately they are leaving their customers uncertain of whether they will have to spend more in the future to maintain LTE connectivity. The uncertainty about plan pricing, minor data billing issues plus changes in retention policy makes Globe Telecom suddenly look a lot more inviting.
If you want to be sure that you get a Smart plan with LTE, without having to pay more in the future, you can avail of the Sony Xperia V or ZTE T82 which come with LTE Plans. The Apple iPhone 5, Samsung Galaxy S 4 and Sony Xpreria Z come with 3G Unli Data Plan with free LTE until June 30, 2013.
When the promo ends, it looks like you will have to pay Php1,000 over and above your current plan to maintain LTE connectivity.
my plan states LTE plan 2000.. the csr showed the promo bundle if one avails of xperia z (which took me two weeks to get). so lets see what happens by the end of June :)
ReplyDeleteStill better than Globe which offers LTE pero lagi naman EDGE or no signal. To think I live near their new bldg at BGC. :-(
ReplyDeleteayun they offered a new sim, wala naman silang stock ng micro, so they cut a new sim na lang. will check out on monday if i can get LTE signals na. Hinde naman kasi LTE spot dito sa bahay. And I paid for that sim pft.
ReplyDeleteLTE or 4G in Asia is just a marketing gimmick in Phils. The infrastructure and current hardware of local telecoms COULD NOT AS YET SUPPORT IT. So everyone is stuck for now with 3G stream. Dream on if you could enjoy 4G effortlessly.... wait until next two years... until local telecoms could have finally upgraded nationwide. BTW iphone5 is crap and could not support LTE. Its pure trash and marketing ass. Get a real smartphone brand, Blackberry or Sony; then HTC and Samsung. Apple is not even within the level of chery mobile when it comes to hardware.A VGA display, dual core circa 2005 iphone 5 versus HD ready display and mediatek quadcore chip on chery mobile, HAHAHAH no wonder if you own apple, the next inday wearing a chery mobile is laughing at your cheapo obsolete crappy slow iphone shit.
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