Smart LTE Plans: Telco Rolls Out High-Speed Postpaid Broadband Sticks

Posted on January 21st, 2013. Written by Rico.

Through its new set of broadband stick plans, the telco promises affordable access to ultra-fast wireless broadband—as it highlights the growing coverage of its Long-Term Evolution (LTE) network.

The Smart LTE Plans are named by each one’s respective monthly fee. The service relies on USB modems that users plug into their laptop (or even desktop) for internet access under Smart’s network coverage. All the LTE plans come with a free modem, but users in the mood for sharing can add ₱2,000 for to get a portable WiFi router.

Plan	Monthly Fee	Data Cap
Smart LTE Plan 1299	₱1,299	5GB
Smart LTE Plan 1749	₱1,749	10GB
Smart LTE Plan 3500	₱3,500	21GB

Smart says that its new broadband sticks, if used in an area where LTE coverage is available (“across 10 cities in as many as 500 establishments in Metro Manila”), will provide a maximum 42 Megabits per second (Mbps) download speed. Since any wireless service very rarely reaches its promised maximum, let’s say the new Smart LTE Plan will download at  average speeds of 20 Mbps. That’s around 2.5 megabytes per second, pretty fast when your average MP3 file is a megabyte a minute.

In real terms, Smart LTE users will be able to download entire DVD-quality movies in half an hour and full music albums in much less time. The fast internet connection speeds also facilitate online gaming, where a few milliseconds separates victory from defeat, and watching videos on YouTube, which is a must for any Filipino looking for the latest online video scandal.

Smart LTE Plan users just need to watch out for each plan’s corresponding data cap, and the fact that each plan requires a 2-year lock in.