New Smart LTE Plans

Smart's LTE plan was originally Php3,500 a month for 10 GB of data with a speed of 42 Mbps. 

Globe Telecom launched it LTE services a month later with the following packages:

• Tattoo Black Plan 1799 - Plan 1799 comes with free USB dongle and runs at speeds of up to 28 Mbps with a 12 GB cap.
• Tattoo Black Elite 2499 - Plan 2499 comes with free USB dongle and runs at speeds of up to 42 Mbps with a 15 GB cap.

In response Smart has revised its LTE offerings as follows:

• Smart LTE Plan 1749 - Plan 1749 gives you 42 Mbps with a 10 GB cap. 
• Smart LTE Plan 3500 - Plan 3500 comes with free USB dongle and runs at speeds of up to 42 Mbps with a 21 GB cap.

Smart Galaxy Note II now available on pre-order from Smart Communications

Samsung's new phablet, the Android powered Samsung Galaxy Note is now available for pre-order from Smart Communications at this page.

The Samsung Galaxy Note II has a 5.5-inch HD (720 x 1280) display. The Galaxy Note is designed which is designed to be used with a stylus and comes with software optimized for that purpose. With a 1.6 GHz quad core processor and  2 GB of RAM it is also Samsung's most powerful hand held device. A 3100 mAh battery is used to power the large screen and powerful processor and does a good job of that. GSMArena's battery life tests gives it almost 17 hours of talk time, almost 9 hours of web browsing and over 11 hours of video playback.

Apple iPhone 4S free at Plan 1500 from Smart

I do not have many details on Smart's Switch Madness promo, to be held at EDSA Shangri-la Mall on September 28-29, 2012. One thing that caught my eye in the teaser was that the Apple iPhone 4S would be offered free at Plan 1500, presumably to switchers from other networks.

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If you have been wanting an iPhone, this might be a good time to get one.

Android 4.1.1, Jelly Bean Update Now Out Smart Communications Issued Samsung Galaxy Nexus Phones

The Android 4.1.1, Jelly Bean update is now rolling out over for Smart Communications issued Samsung Galaxy Nexus phones. The 160 MB update quietly came in over-the-air over the phones 3G connection.

What's new in Jelly Bean (Scource: Android.com)

Android Beam

• With Android Beam, you can now easily share your photos and videos.
• Instantly pair your phone or tablet to Bluetooth® devices like headsets or speakers that support the Simple Secure Pairing standard by just tapping them together.

Audio Accessories

• Support for USB audio docks, shipping later this year.

 Browser and WebView

• Browser has improved performance, CPU and memory efficiency. With better performance for animations and HTML5 canvases and an updated JavaScript Engine (V8), pages load faster and feel smoother.
• Browser now has better HTML5 video support, and has a new user experience. Just touch the video to play and pause, and smoothly transition into and out of fullscreen mode.
• Browser now supports the updated HTML5 Media Capture specification on input elements.
• WebView now supports vertical text, including Ruby Text and other vertical text glyphs.

 Calendar

• Calendar is more buttery. Content fades in, animations are sprinkled throughout, and swiping/paging between days is smoother.
• Calendar will now display event colors if you've given your event a color on your PC.
• The 'Today' button on the action bar now shows the current day. When viewing an event's details, you can now email all the guests with a single tap.
• Notifications for upcoming events now display more of the event description to let you quickly see relevant details without having to open the app.
• Notifications for upcoming events now let you email all the guests without opening the app, and you can choose a quick response such as "Be there in 10 minutes" or type your own.
• A new option in Calendar settings lets you create your own default quick responses for emailing guests.
• You can now snooze an upcoming event reminder right from the notification.
• Calendar has a new 7" tablet layout that is optimized for the form factor.
• When viewing Calendar in portrait orientation on tablets, you can hide or expand controls to give you complete control over how you view your Calendar space.
• Calendar will now remember whether you've chosen to hide or expand controls so you have a consistent experience viewing Calendar whenever you open it.

 Camera and Gallery

• You can now swipe from the camera viewfinder to quickly review photos you've taken without having to leave the camera app. You can swipe back to the camera viewfinder to start snapping photos again.
• When viewing photos in Gallery, you can pinch to zoom out to enter "filmstrip mode" and rapidly review photos. When viewing photos in filmstrip mode, you can swipe up or down to delete an individual photo. You can also undo the delete with a single tap.
• When taking a photo, a new animation sweeps your photo off the screen. There is now a new paging animation when swiping between photos.
• Camera features a new animation for switching between the front-facing and back cameras.
• When focusing on an object in Camera, a new animation gives you visual feedback on your focus state.
• Gallery features a new animation when selecting a photo from within the album view and back.

Data Usage

• You can now dismiss a data usage warning without changing the data threshold set for warning notifications.
• Disable background data usage on certain Wi-Fi SSIDs by designating them as mobile hotspots.
• Android now automatically detects when one Jelly Bean device is tethered to another's Wi-Fi hotspot, and intelligently enables or disables background data usage on the SSID.

Face Unlock

• Face Unlock is now faster and more accurate, and startup is smoother with a new animation.
• You can improve face matching accuracy by calibrating your face in different conditions and with different accessories (e.g. hat, glasses).
• Face Unlock can now optionally require a 'blink' to verify that a live person is unlocking the device rather than a photo.

Internationalization

• Jelly Bean adds support for bidirectional text and more input languages to make the platform accessible to more people around the world.
• There is improved support for Arabic and Hebrew, including a new Arabic font, in the platform.
• You can now enter text in one of 18 new input languages, including Persian, Hindi and Thai. Additional Indic languages Kannada, Telugu, and Malayalam are now supported by the platform.
• Emoji from Unicode 6.0 will now render when received or viewed.
• If the system language is set to Japanese, Japanese specific versions of glyphs will now be properly rendered.

Keyboard

• The platform's dictionaries are now more accurate and more relevant.
• The language model in Jelly Bean adapts over time, and the keyboard features bigram prediction and correction.
• You can now switch languages quickly with the dedicated language selector key on keyboard.
• You can use custom keyboard input styles for more than 20 languages, with keymaps for QWERTY, QWERTZ, AZERTY, Dvorak, Colemak, and PC styles.
• You can choose the input styles that you want to use for each keyboard, and use a hotkey to switch between them while typing.

 Messaging and Talk

• New notifications display the full text of incoming SMS messages. When receiving an MMS, you can view the full photo in a notification.
• When entering recipients for an SMS or MMS, a new UI collects recipients as chips, making it easier to compose messages.
• Talk features a new notification style.

Notifications

• You can now take action on notifications directly from the redesigned notifications shade.
• Notifications from the same application are grouped together, and the first item is automatically expanded. You can also pinch notifications to expand or collapse them.
• You now get an image preview in notifications after taking a screenshot. You can quickly share the screenshot directly from the notification.
• You can lock automatic display rotation from the notifications shade on 7" tablets.
• For Wi-Fi only devices, quickly see the SSID of the access point you're connected to from the notifications shade.
• You can now touch-hold a notification to identify the application that created it and turn off notifications from that application if needed, as well as uninstall the application.

Networking

• Wi-Fi protected setup is now supported with WPS push button and PIN support.
• A new setting lets you stay on mobile data and avoid nearby Wi-Fi networks with poor connections.

 News and Weather

• News and Weather is updated to improve freshness and power consumption.

 People

• The People app is more buttery with smoother animations and improved search performance.
• The People app now retrieves high res photos automatically for Google contacts with public Google+ profiles and displays higher res photos (720x720) on certain devices.
• High res photos set on Google accounts will be backed up and synced across devices.
• The People app has a new 7" tablet layout that is optimized for the form factor.
• You can now quickly add your favorite contacts to a home screen, directly from the contact's details page.
• The People app helps you organize your contacts and reduces duplicates with an Improved auto-joining algorithm.
• You can now clear the frequently contacted list from the favorites tab in the People app.

 Phone

• When you miss a call, a new notification lets you return the call or reply by SMS with a single touch.
• Incoming visual voicemails are displayed in a new notification that lets you play the message with a single touch.
• When a call is ongoing, a new notification lets you hang up the call with one touch.
• As part of Project Butter, the dial pad is more responsive. Call log scrolling is buttery smooth, and swiping between tabs in Phone is quick and fluid.
• You can now clear your frequently contacted list in the favorite tab of Phone.
• You can now add phone numbers from the call log to existing, read-only contacts.

 Settings

• Accounts are now displayed in the primary Settings view so you can easily see all the accounts you're signed into on your device.
• You can now easily access all Google Privacy Settings in one place by selecting your Google account from Settings.

 System

• Device encryption is now more reliable, and periodically reminds you to decrypt your device. Now, SMS messages and calls are declined when waiting for decryption.
• You can long press the 'Power Off' option in the power menu to boot your device to safe mode.
• A new 'Reset app preferences' button lets you quickly reset default applications for specific activities, background data restrictions, notifications suppressions, and more.
• A redesigned dialog with larger icons lets you intuitively choose your preferred application for specific activities.
• Google Apps Device Policy on your device may now override the 'keep screen awake' option from developer settings.

Text-to-speech

• Jelly Bean introduces a new conversational text-to-speech voice in US English, available as both a network engine and an embedded engine via the TTS API.

Voice Typing

• A new embedded speech recognizer lets you use Voice Typing even when you don't have an Internet connection.

 Widgets

• Jelly Bean makes it easier to personalize your home screen. As you place widgets on the screen, everything else automatically moves to make room.
• When they're too big, widgets resize on their own. If you choose to resize a widget, apps and widgets will now also move out of the way.
• You can now quickly remove apps or widgets from any home screen by picking them up and flinging them to the edge of the screen.
• Launching apps and returning back home are now faster and smoother.

 Accessibility

• With Jelly Bean, blind users can use 'Gesture Mode' to reliably navigate the UI using touch and swipe gestures in combination with speech output.
• With the new accessibility focus feature, you can move a cursor between controls to maintain a target for the next action or a source for the next navigation event. You can double tap anywhere to launch the current item with accessibility focus.
• Text traversal in accessibility now gives you more control – choose to move between pages, paragraphs, lines, words or characters.
• TalkBack, a screenreader for Android, now supports gestures to trigger actions, to navigate applications, and traverse text.
• Get full support for braille accessibility services (download BrailleBack on Google Play).

Globe Tattoo Black LTE

Globe is launching its Tattoo Black, Globe LTE mobile broadband service. Globe is offering two plans:

• Tattoo Black Plan 1799 - Plan 1799 comes with free USB dongle and runs at speeds of up to 28 Mbps with a 12 GB cap.

• Tattoo Black Elite 2499 - Plan 2499 comes with free USB dongle and runs at speeds of up to 42 Mbps with a 15 GB cap. 

Yugatech has confirmed both Plans are unlimited.

You have the option to upgrade the device to a SuperStick for a minimum additional charge of only P150 a month. The SuperStick is a WiFi capable USB modem which will allow you to share the connection with up to 5 users.

Coverage for now is limited to Makati City.

Smart Communications launched its own LTE Service last month, which is priced at Php3,500 a month for 10 GB of 42 Mbps connectivity. Smart does over wider coverage areas for now covering Makati City and several other locations in Metro Manila. Still, it looks like Smart may have to rework its offering.  

Updated on September 30, 2012.

Globe Tattoo MediaPad

Globe is offering the Huawei MediaPad under its Tatoo brand. The Huawei MediaPad is a 7-inch Android tablet which has HSDPA connectivity. The MediaPad is a pretty current device with a HD display (720 x 1280) display and powered by a 1.2 GHz dual core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor with 1 GB of RAM. The operating system installed out of the box is Android 3.2, Honeycomb, but it is upgradeable to Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich.

The MediaPad has 8 GB of internal storage, 5.8 GB of which is user available. While 5.8 GB is not much for a tablet, storage is expandable via a MicroSD card.  The MediaPad also come with a 5 MP primary camera and a 1.3 MP secondary camera. Connectivity options are good, with the MediaPad being equipped with Bluetooth, a HDMI port (to plug it into your LCD TV) and USB-on-the-Go (so you can plug USB Flash Drives into the tablet via an adapter). 

In order to get the MediaPad from Globe, you have to subscribe to a unlimited data plan. With a Php999 per month data plan you can get the Huawei MediaPad for Php10,990. This is not a bad deal since you can expect to pay at least 17K for a HSDPA enabled tablet. Globe Telecom will also allow you to pay the Php10,990 over a period of 12-months at zero interest, making the package more affordable. You will be locked into Globe for 24-months on Plan 999. 

Globe Telecom to Offer Rebates to Subscribers Affect by Last Weekends Network Disruption

Globe Telecom will be offering rebates to subscribers affected by network problems from September 1 to September 2, 2012. Globe's official statement on the matter is a follows:

Last Saturday, September 1, 2012, we monitored subscribers having difficulty in making and receiving calls while they are in identified areas in Southern Manila, particularly Las Pinas, Paranaque, Muntinlupa, and Taguig. The temporary disruption was caused by a connectivity issue within our network systems. 

By Sunday evening, September 2, 2012, we were able to restore call services partially, as certain affected areas have already reported service improvements. We wish to assure our subscribers that Globe is continuously working 24-7 to make sure call services in the remaining affected areas are fully restored as soon as possible. 

As of today (September 3, 2012), this issue has been corrected and services are back to normal. 

Globe is prepared to offer rebates to affected postpaid and prepaid customers. We will notify affected customers with details on the customer rebate through SMS. 

We deeply apologize to our affected subscribers for the inconvenience. Thank you.

Smart LTE Official Launched! Pricing and Coverage.

Smart Communications officially launched its LTE service that it has been testing since last year. The plan is for a high speed broadband only accessible via a Huawei E392 USB modem which comes free as part of the plan.

How fast? Up to 42 Mbps. How much? Well, the price for the plan it a fairly high Php3,500 per month for a total of 10 GB of bandwidth, but that is actual reasonable if you compare it to similar services abroad. Please note, the 10 GB limit covers both upload and download. Over and above the 10GB, you will be charged Php450 per month. It is not clear to me yet how you measure you use.

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The biggest disappointment is coverage. Right now only 49 locations are covered by LTE. Where there is no LTE you can still connect to HSPA+, HSPA, 3G, EDGE, GPRS towers, which is still chargeable against your 10 GB bandwidth cap.

Buying Music Online from MyMusicStore Philippines

There are several sources from which you can buy music online. I would recommend you try buying from a local outfit, MyMusicStore Philippines. 

When you visit MyMusicStore's website you will find a nice and cleanly laid out site. You can use the search bar to look for a title, album, or find music by the name of the artist or band. There is also a a top chart list and a list of new singles. When you search for singles you can listen to a short preview just to make sure you are buying is the correct one.

   

What is really interesting is your payment options. You can use a credit card or PayPal, but you can also pay through a load on a Smart or SmartBro SIM. You can also pay through MyMusicStore Gift Cards.

Okay. So, we decided to buy "The Last Song I Will Write for You" by David Cook for Php35. Loaded up Php60 on my Smart Bro SIM and proceeded to make the purchase. After registering on the site and confirming purchase, a SMS was sent to my tablet with a PIN code. You have 48 hours from receipt of the PIN code to download the song. The song we bought came in a nice 44.1kHz/256kpbs MP3 format. The download was really fast. 

Unlike some other online Music Stores which keep track of your purchases and allow you to re-download songs you bought at any time, so make sure to keep a back-up of what you bought.  

Smart Apple iPhone 4 Free at All-In Plan 1800

With a new Apple iPhone release being imminent, it looks like Smart Communications is eager to to get the Apple iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 in your hands now. A few days ago, Smart dropped the phone to free at Plan 2000, from free at Plan 2499. Now, they have offered even a nice deal on the older iPhone 4 8 GB available at All-In Plan 1800. The All-In Plan allows you to bundle unlimited data, text and calls in one plan, and can be reconfigured from month to month.

Recommended Plan Set-up:

• Unlimited Data - Php1,000
• 2,500 SMS to Smart, Globe and Sun - Php350
• 80 minutes calls to Smart, Globe and Sun - Php250 
• Consumable - Php200

Smart LTE - High speed 10GB of data for Php3,500. Will you bite?

Smart Communications with be launching its new LTE Broadband service on August 25, 2012. The deal is 10 GB's of data at a blistering 42 Mbps for Php3,500 a month.

Talking about this with a few friends last night, it seemed that no one is happy with the 10 GB data cap. I think this is in part because people do not know how much data they download per day. On my typical day, I consume 100 MB of data or less. Given the occasional download of a Android ROM (90-450 MB), a Linux Distribution (500-700MB) and software updates for my Mac, I could probably hit 5 GB on some months. Still, that is a whole lost less than 10 GB. Unless you spend most of your internet time, streaming HD video or downloading movies, it is pretty hard to consume 10 GB a month.Of couse with a 42 Mbps connection, I am likely to use more, since things which I are not too much fun to do on my 1 Mbps connection, might become more enjoyable at 42 Mbps. 

Still, I have no issue with a 10 GB cap. It will be like the 1.5 GB cap on our smartphones on Smart Data Plan 2000, where Smart can reduce our speeds if we exceed the. In 18 months, as far as I can tell I never exceeded the cap. With the three the Smartphones on Data Plan 2000, none of them went past 1 GB last month, one phone nearly used 1 GB, with the other two using 704 MB and 416 MB, respectively. 

I do have some issue with the cost. One of the three Data Plan 2000 phones is for my personal use. I pay Php1,200 a month for the data aspect of the plan. I also maintain a 1 Mbps Globe DSL connection at home, shared among four personal computers at the cost of Php999 a month. Lastly, when I need to use a laptop on the road, I use a SmartBro USB modem, and spend Php400 to 800 on that a month. Basically, a unlimited smartphone data plan, a residential DSL connection and a prepaid mobile internet connection all comes out to Php2,519 to Php2,919 a month.

The Php3,500 monthly fee for a mobile broadband connection is more than I am willing to pay. The new LTE plan  wont replace my smarthphone data plan and our residential DSL. 

Still, I will wait till the 25th and hope there are other options there are. I am not sure if Smart will offer a prepaid LTE plan. I could replace my four year old USB modem with a new faster unit.

Update: Was talking to Abe Olandres on Twitter. Looks like Smart LTE offer will be postpaid only. Here is Yugatech's articles on the Smart's offering 

Smart Postpaid Freedom Plan

Smart Communications has introduced a postpaid plan called the Freedom Plan. The Freedom Plan has no fixed monthly fees, you only pay for what you use at the following rates:

• Calls On-net   -   Php6.50
• Calls Off-net   -   Php7.5
• IDD   -   US$0.40
• Local SMS or MMS   -   Php1.00
• International SMS   -   Php10.00
• Web Browsing   -   Php10/30 minutes 

The plan has no lock-in or contract, so you can terminate it on a monthly basis. 

You can also add-on several different packages:

Basically, it is a postpaid plan, which should appeal to pre-paid users, which basically removes the chore of having to buy load.

Nokia Lumia 710 now free from Smart at regular Data Plan 1000

Smart Communications is now again offering the Nokia Lumia 710 at Data Plan 1000. This is different from the Limited Edition Data Plan 1000 they offered this phone a few months ago. 

The Nokia Lumia 710 is a Windows Phone 7.5 device with a 3.7-inch WVGA (480 x 800 display), 8GB of storage, a 5 MP auto focus camera with a flash and a front camera.  Software wise, its biggest draw is probably NDrive, Nokia's voice guided turn by turn Navigation app. Something you will spend a few thousand for on an Android phone or iPhone.

It won't be updated to Windows Phone 8, coming in October 2012, but it will be getting one last update to Windows Phone 7.8.

For the Php1,000 a month plan, you get the phone free, 40 minutes of calls to all networks, 100 SMS to all networks and 100 MB of mobile data. 

Unfortunately it is not a great plan, the calls have a value of Php280, the SMS another Php100 and 100 MB of mobile data is worth Php198. This totals to Php578 a month so services. So basically, you are paying Php422 a month for 24 months for the phone, which is just a bit over 10K. So, it is not really a free phone. 

For the same money, I am more inclined to recommend a Php999 BlackBerry Plan, which gives you unlimited data, Php400 consumable and a free BlackBerry phone.

Smart Samsung Galaxy SIII featuring Direct Call

Smart Communications has a commercial featuring the direct call feature of the Samsung Galaxy S III.

Globe Telecom offering the Nokia Lumia 610 Plan 999

The Nokia Lumia 610 is the lowest priced Windows Phone device available. It retails for Php10,990 and offers a decent kit for the price, with a 3.7-inch WVGA (480 x 800) display and 8 GB of internal storage. It also has Nokia Drive. Nokia's voice guided turn by turn navigation system. It has a decent 5 MP camera, though video recording is limited to VGA quality. On the downside, it wont be upgraded to the next version of the Windows Phone operating system, Windows Phone 8. Still, that is always a tradeoff when buying entry level smartphones.

Globe Telecom is offering the Nokia Lumia 610 at Plan 999. You can get it under a consumable plan with three freebies, although a Data Add-On is required. The cheapest Data Add-On is 50 MB of data at Php99.

So for Php1,098 you can get the Nokia Lumia 610 free with:

• Php999 consumable
• 10 minutes free calls within the Globe network*
• 200 free SMS within the Globe network*
• 10 minutes free calls to other networks*
• 50 free SMS to other networks*

*You can pick a different combination of freebies.

The other option is to get it under a data plan. For Php999 you can the Nokia Lumia 610 free, with  one freebie:

• Unlimited data access
• 10 minutes free calls within the Globe network
• 200 free SMS within the Globe network*

*You can pick a different freebie.

Two year lock-in period applies in either case.

Android has an 82.2% Share of the Philippine Market

Smart Communication reports that "an April 2012 study by research and analytics firm GfK, which states that the Google-owned mobile operating software (OS) now powers most smartphones in the country with a commanding 82.2% market share."

The "GfK’s study further reveals that despite average smartphone prices being pegged below Php7,500, close to 95% of these are equipped with High Speed Packet Access Plus (HSPA+) technology similar to more expensive handsets. x x x The GfK report shows that regular feature phones still have a 70.6% stronghold of the market while smartphones, though improving quickly, are relegated to a 29.4% slice of the pie."

Smart also gave details on their HSPA+ network. HSPA+ allows for speeds of up to 21Mbps. This gives Android an advantage on Smart network since even the latest iPhone 4S still only uses an HSPA 14.4Mbps radio. Phones like the Samsung phones like the Galaxy S II, Galaxy Note, Galaxy Nexus, and the Galaxy S III support HSPA+. HTC's One X and One S also support HSPA+.

Smart has more than 1,500 HSPA+ sites nationwide covering all major Philippine cities and municipalities and is the only telecommunications provider that offers this HSPA dual band making it more reliable and stable.

Is there any reason to get a BlackBerry? - Globe Telecom's BlackBerry Curve 9320 @Plan999

Still cool?

I was in Rockwell last weekend looking at a Globe Telecom display of its offerings and was considering getting a second phone as a back-up to my Smart Data Plan. They had a couple of BlackBerry's on display.

Four years ago, RIM's BlackBerry smartphones were the most coveted smartphones in the Philippines. I applied for one for years ago, but back than it was enterprise only. But really it was never about the phone, but the service. With unlimited data plans coming to regular handsets in 2010, your modern Apple iPhone or Google Android phone received the same functionality as a BlackBerry. Still you had you have low cost services like BlackBerry Social which gave you unlimited access to your social networks, instant messengers and BBM.

In 2011, came volume data plans which for a few hundred bucks access to your social networks and instant messengers. Sure its not unlimited, but neither was BlackBerry Social. Click a link to a websote shared by a friend on Facebook on Twitter, and you get charged the Php5 of Php10, regular browsing charge.

So, RIM is on the ropes. It is loosing market share to Apple's iPhone and Google Androids. Still there are over 78 million BlackBerry users around the world, and RIM did sell 48 million smartphones last year. RIM is in transiton. RIM will be moving over to BlackBerry 10 in 2013, but apparently BlackBerry 7 phones will continue to be produced for the entry level and mid-level devices.

In the meantime, the RIM's phones are expensive for what they offer, jurassic in terms of technology and the BlackBerry app store has a limited selection, and is expensive to boot.

Is there any reason to get a BlackBerry?

If you are on a prepaid line, it really makes little sense these days. If you are willing to spend on a unlimited data plan, a Apple iPhone, Google Android or Microsoft Windows Phone device will serve you better.

On the other hand, if you budget for a line is about Php1000 a month, a BlackBerry may still be the phone for you?

For Php999 a month Globe will give you a decent BlackBerry handset, a Curve 9320, unlimited internent and access to BlackBerry services, a freebie (example: 10 minutes of calls and 200 SMS with in the Globe network) and Php400 consumable.

Sure, the hardware is not all that exciting, but a smartphone is not really all that smart without a data connection, and a unlimited data connection is the best type to get.

Is it a good deal? It is Php400 a month cheaper than the next best option.

For the same Php999 a month Globe Telecom will give you a Nokia Lumia 610, unlimited data and one freebie. The Nokia Lumia 610 is a much more interesting and capable device, but you do not get the Php400 a month consumable for calls and SMS to other networks.

If you budget for a phone is about Php1,000 a month, a BlackBerry from Globe might not be a bad way to go.