MANILA, Philippines—Smart Communications has reduced the prices of its Long Term Evolution (LTE) mobile plans as it tries to undercut rival Globe Telecom, which also recently unveiled its own LTE services.
The mobile unit of dominant carrier Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) announced over the weekend that it would now offer monthly LTE plans at P1,749 for 10 gigabytes (GB) worth of Internet use.
Smart also introduced a new LTE-enabled pocket WiFi device that could be linked to several mobile devices at the same time.
“Smart LTE Plan 1749 gives Filipinos a choice. This is a true LTE service which runs on true LTE speeds,” said Lloyd Manaloto of Smart Broadband Internet Data Services.
Smart’s LTE plans offer mobile connection speeds of up to 42 megabits per second (Mbps), significantly higher than the speeds available on previous third-generation (3G) mobile technologies
With the introduction of the new P1,749-a-month plan, Smart also announced that its previous P3,500 monthly LTE service would get a boost, giving subscribers 21 GB worth of surfing, up from the previous 10 GB.
The data caps for all plans will take effect next January. Until then, users will be able to surf as much as they want without incurring additional costs.
Basic LTE plans will be available through USB dongles that connect to laptop or desktop computers. Subscriber can opt to upgrade to mobile WiFi devices for an additional one-time fee of P2,000.