3G Cost Is Plummeting!

Smart to begin commercial 3G service in May - INQ7.net

Today's issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer announces that Smart Communications will start its commercial operations tomorrow (May 1, 2006). They also announced the pricing of the service and here's a brief rundown of the cost of 3G here in the Philippines:

• Subscribers using video calling service will not be charged.
• Smart 3G subscribers can watch GMA Network and ABS-CBN television live via video streaming. Subscription fee for each network is 20 pesos per day. 3G streaming of audio and video clips will be charged 5 pesos per "hit."
• Multimedia messaging rates or MMS for Smart 3G subscribers will cost 1 peso per message for subscribers sending to fellow Smart subscribers and 2 pesos per MMS for Smart to other subscribers using other operators. Prior to this, the rate for MMS was 5 pesos per message.
• Internet browsing using 3G phones will cost 10 pesos for every 30 minutes, no matter if one is using GPRS or 3G. This cost is also regardless of the file size downloaded.

For mobile professionals like me, this is great news and is a good enough reason for me to switch mobile phone providers. The last item (10 Pesos pero 30 minute 3G/GRS access) is actually very reasonable because it costs the same to surf the 'net on an internet cafe.

I hope the other local telcos comes up with competetive rates.

Note: Bullet points in italics are taken directly from the linked INQ7.Net article.

technorati tags: 3g, gprs, edge, mobile, cellphone