Smart launches unique prepaid reloading service

Major wireless services provider Smart Communications Inc. recently launched a revolutionary over-the-air (OTA) prepaid reloading service that will offer airtime in ‘sachet-like’ packages, making cellular services more affordable and accessible to a broader market of cellphone users.

Called Smart Buddy Load, the OTA reloading service will make available three types of "retail" packages: Economy, regular and extra load. An economy load with a retail price of P30, for example, can be used to send 30 text messages or make three to six minutes worth of voice call. A regular load with a retail price of P60, on the other hand, can be used to send 60 text messages or make six to 13 minutes worth of calls. The extra load, with a retail price of P115, can be used to send 125 text messages or make 12 to 25 minutes worth of calls. The packages can also be used for a combination of text and voice calls.

"This is another innovation in Philippine telecommunications that is a world first. This is the first phone-to-phone electronic reloading service offering such affordable packages to a much broader market," according to Smart president and CEO Napoleon Nazareno.

Smart has been offering OTA reloading since the introduction of Smart Money, an electronic cash card linked to a phone, in 2001. Using the cash card, Smart cellphone users can reload their prepaid Buddy phones in amounts ranging from P250 to P1,000 at any given time.

"Buddy Load is the answer to the dreams of many ordinary consumers. It is an affordable and convenient means of loading one’s prepaid phone. Smart Buddy Load prepaid packs sell for as low as P30. And it offers the convenience of being easily available at sari-sari stores. We believe it will be a household word in no time," according to Anastacio R. Martirez, Smart personal communications and mobile services division head.

He said that because of its affordability and accessibility, those who have temporarily gone out of the service can easily get back and enjoy the privileges of being a Smart subscriber. "In fact, aside from benefiting our more than 9.5 million prepaid subscribers, Buddy Load will make it possible for people to build lucrative micro-businesses. What we are doing here is replicating the success of the sachet concept in consumer goods industry and applying it to the telecom industry," Martirez explained.

Using this service, a retailer uses his cellphone to load airtime over-the-air into a subscriber’s phone. No cards are needed for this transaction. Instead, a text message will be sent by the Smart system to the subscriber, informing him or her of the amount of text or equivalent airtime available and the load expiry for the airtime package reloaded.

Each type of package has a prescribed period: Three days for economy, six days for regular and 12 days for extra. This means that for an economy load, for example, a subscriber can send text or make voice calls within a period of three days. Likewise, the SIM validity period or the maximum allowable time that a subscriber can receive text and voice calls is 30 days for both economy and regular packages, and 60 days for extra.

The packages were designed based on the current usage behavior of Smart’s prepaid subscribers, according to Dan Ibarra, head of Smart’s e-services department.