Globe offers cheaper browsing plan

MANILA, Philippines - Globe Telecom, a partnership between diversified conglomerate Ayala Corp. and SingTel, is boosting the use of mobile browsing to allow subscribers to maximize the use of smartphones whose average price fell 23 percent this year.

GfK Philippines general manager Benny Villanueva said the average price of smartphones in the Philippines is now a little over P10,000 or $244 this year from P13,000 or $317 last year.

“Rising demand for smartphones is largely triggered by efforts of device manufacturers who are offering more affordable smartphones, as well as retailers who have started offering zero interest programs of up to 24 months on top of other promos when selling smartphone devices,” Villanueva said.

Globe Mobile Data Services head Jenny Granada-Echevarria said in a statement that smartphone use in the Philippines is on a steady rise on the back of more low-priced internet-enabled mobile devices.

 “Most Filipinos buy smartphones and miss out on a lot of its features by limiting its use to texting or calling. A lot of smartphone users tend to use data via WiFi only due to fear of high data charges. This is why Globe introduced their PowerSurf MB plans. PowerSurf MB is best for smartphone users who always want to be connected and online without having to worry about high data charges, since charging is not based on time spent online, but on what they do and the sites they go to when connected to mobile internet,” she said.

Now that smartphone prices have dropped, she explained that it is fitting to offer mobile Internet plans that give more value for money.

To give more Filipinos access to internet surfing on their mobile phones, Globe launched Globe PowerSurf plans that use megabytes or MBs under mobile browsing plans.

Mobile surfing activities such as sending e-mails, downloading an application, posting on social networking sites, uploading photos or streaming videos all require a certain amount of data. 1 megabyte (MB) is equivalent to 1,024 kilobytes (KB).

For example, activities that do not include downloading of any image, video or sound such as Facebook posts and likes, tweets, and e-mail without attachments consume up to 100 KB.

On the other hand, web page views and photo uploads and downloads are within the 100 KB to 500 KB range, while YouTube video streaming, application, games and music downloads generate more than 1MB.

Through Globe PowerSurf MB, subscribers get bulk MB of mobile data, consumable per KB. Using Globe PowerSurf MB plans, subscribers use their allotted MBs for mobile internet activities, where MBs are consumed based on actual data from a specific activity. 

This type of charging is better than default charging where subscribers are charged P5 for every 15 minutes of online time. Using MBs in mobile surfing does not look at the time spent online, but on the activity performed or site visited, making it more affordable to surf on the mobile phone, thus giving users the worry-free mobile surfing experience.