Wazzup Pilipinas!
‘Welcome Change’ also named Best Brand
Campaign at Asia Communication Awards
For its efforts to boost its network and
make relevant digital services accessible to Filipinos, PLDT wireless unit
Smart Communications was named Digital Service Provider of the Year at the Asia
Communication Awards (ACA) ceremony held recently in Singapore.
The ACA recognizes outstanding performance
by Asian carriers, multimedia content providers, vendors, and other
communication service providers. It is conducted annually by London-based
industry publication Total Telecom.
Smart’s Welcome Change campaign – which
communicated the company’s digital pivot and encouraged Filipinos to empower
themselves through mobile innovations – won the Best Brand Campaign
recognition.
Janet Watkin, head of the ACA panel of
judges and CEO of a customer experience consultancy, said simply making it to
the shortlist was already an achievement, given the challenges faced by the
telecommunications industry.
“Doing business has become more digital,
global, social, and mobile, and the marketplace is vaster and more crowded than
it has ever been. Alongside changes in technology and competition are the
changing expectations and behavior of customers. As such, making it onto the
shortlist for the Asia Communication Awards is indeed a formidable achievement.
To win requires that something extra special that is a cut above the rest,” she
said.
Digital transformation
“We are honored to receive these awards from
a prestigious institution that understands the rapid changes sweeping through
the telco industry. This recognition further inspires us to intensify our
pursuit for digital transformation and to bring the benefits of the digital
life to more Filipinos,” said PLDT and Smart chairman and CEO Manny V.
Pangilinan.
Smart has a multi-pronged approach in
encouraging Filipinos to welcome the digital change – it continuously improves
and expands its network while making available devices, relevant content, and
value-packed service offers to its subscribers.
In 2016, Smart and PLDT launched a
$1-billion digital transformation program to enable their fixed and mobile
networks to support the rising demand for digital services. Smart has committed
to progressively deploy LTE services to 95% of the country’s cities and
municipalities by end-2018. To do this, the company is combining low-band
frequencies for better indoor penetration and wider coverage, with high-band
frequencies for additional capacity. These frequencies include those obtained
through the acquisition of the telco businesses of San Miguel Corp.
Smart has
finished its LTE deployment in Boracay and Metro Davao, while efforts are ongoing in Metro Cebu and Metro Manila.
Internal tests show Smart’s LTE service consistently increasing in speeds and
registering improved indoor data coverage. Third-party crowdsourced tests also
show that Smart offers the fastest LTE service in the Philippines.
Because not many Filipinos can afford LTE
handsets, Smart has partnered with various device manufacturers to introduce
affordable LTE devices with network-compatible frequencies.
Ross is known as the Pambansang Blogger ng Pilipinas - An Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Professional by profession and a Social Media Evangelist by heart.
