iPhone 4S debuts in PHL, PNoy first to get new iPhone from Globe
The iPhone 4S, the first mobile phone that responds to voice commands, debuted in the Philippines with much fanfare and amid intense competition between the country’s leading telecommunications companies.
Globe Telecom Inc., the challenger to the dominant Smart and Sun Cellular combine of PLDT, dared to offer unlimited data to all who wanted to own the coveted tech gadget and customers responded by giving Globe its best iPhone launch ever.
“We actually sold out the whole allocation (of iPhones) and it was a very significant allocation,” Globe president Ernest Cu said without divulging the exact number of iPhone 4S units it sold.
Cu also revealed that the first to receive the iPhone 4S from Globe was President Benigno Aquino III on Thursday while the second unit and the others that followed were let go later that day during a launch event.
Smart offers unlimited data from its Plan 1500 up to Plan 4000 while Globe’s unlimited data starts at Plan 999 and goes all the wap up to its Platinum 5000 plan.
Cu explained that they chose to offer unlimited data so their prepaid and postpaid subscribers could enjoy their smartphone experience. “You can’t really enjoy a Blackberry, iPhone or Android without a data connection,” he said.
Globe’s unlimited data offer was also meant to address “bill shock” which Cu said was “one of the most major issues” its subscribers have about owning smartphones.
“No more bill shock ever again,” said Peter Bithos, Globe senior adviser for consumer business.
Christmas Day congestion
However, Globe’s upgrade to handle high data traffic will take at least 18 months to finish although its officials have said before that some of its subscribers, especially those in Davao will experience the improvement in the upgrade sooner.
Cu said there will be network congestion on Christmas Day.
“Generally, we have a lot of capacity… but we cannot capacitize a network for those peaks. We capacitize for normal everyday usage. Christmas is a peak. We do think that capacity is there today to handle the traffic whatever comes during Christmas specifically for SMS. Some areas will be congested. There is no question. That is why the spend of $790 million is coming into place,” Cu explained.
The Globe president explained that its $790 million modernization was undertaken “with the smartphone in mind. It is built for iPhone traffic.”
System abuse
Cu and Bithos revealed the extent of how some of its subscribers abuse the system.
“What we find is less than one percent of users use about 10 to 20 percent of the traffic,” Bithos noted.
Cu said consumers get spam on their mobile phones because there are some who abuse unlimited text. “We’ve found people running Internet cafes on one iPhone or Android or one Globe Tatoo super stick. That is not what the plans were intended to be used for… it degrades performance for the bigger population and we don’t want those customers.”
“If they want to move somewhere else, they have our blessing. We won’t make money on them anyway and they degrade the system,” Cu added. — GMA News
Source - [ gmanetwork.com ]
Globe Telecom Inc., the challenger to the dominant Smart and Sun Cellular combine of PLDT, dared to offer unlimited data to all who wanted to own the coveted tech gadget and customers responded by giving Globe its best iPhone launch ever.
“We actually sold out the whole allocation (of iPhones) and it was a very significant allocation,” Globe president Ernest Cu said without divulging the exact number of iPhone 4S units it sold.
Cu also revealed that the first to receive the iPhone 4S from Globe was President Benigno Aquino III on Thursday while the second unit and the others that followed were let go later that day during a launch event.
Smart offers unlimited data from its Plan 1500 up to Plan 4000 while Globe’s unlimited data starts at Plan 999 and goes all the wap up to its Platinum 5000 plan.
Cu explained that they chose to offer unlimited data so their prepaid and postpaid subscribers could enjoy their smartphone experience. “You can’t really enjoy a Blackberry, iPhone or Android without a data connection,” he said.
Globe’s unlimited data offer was also meant to address “bill shock” which Cu said was “one of the most major issues” its subscribers have about owning smartphones.
“No more bill shock ever again,” said Peter Bithos, Globe senior adviser for consumer business.
Christmas Day congestion
However, Globe’s upgrade to handle high data traffic will take at least 18 months to finish although its officials have said before that some of its subscribers, especially those in Davao will experience the improvement in the upgrade sooner.
Cu said there will be network congestion on Christmas Day.
“Generally, we have a lot of capacity… but we cannot capacitize a network for those peaks. We capacitize for normal everyday usage. Christmas is a peak. We do think that capacity is there today to handle the traffic whatever comes during Christmas specifically for SMS. Some areas will be congested. There is no question. That is why the spend of $790 million is coming into place,” Cu explained.
The Globe president explained that its $790 million modernization was undertaken “with the smartphone in mind. It is built for iPhone traffic.”
System abuse
Cu and Bithos revealed the extent of how some of its subscribers abuse the system.
“What we find is less than one percent of users use about 10 to 20 percent of the traffic,” Bithos noted.
Cu said consumers get spam on their mobile phones because there are some who abuse unlimited text. “We’ve found people running Internet cafes on one iPhone or Android or one Globe Tatoo super stick. That is not what the plans were intended to be used for… it degrades performance for the bigger population and we don’t want those customers.”
“If they want to move somewhere else, they have our blessing. We won’t make money on them anyway and they degrade the system,” Cu added. — GMA News
Source - [ gmanetwork.com ]
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