Having been able to test both Smart 3G and Globe Visibility on the road in many occasions, I can fairly compare the two in terms of speed, reliability and coverage. Smart wins hands-down when we talk about 3G coverage but if you ask me about speed/performance, Globe Visibility kicks in a bit more. The fastest 3G connection speed I had with Globe was ~700Kbps while I only got about ~400Kbps on Smart.
However, I am still not that convinced with either of the two since I mostly get only GPRS speeds when testing them from out of town. So I looked at the available packages/solutions:
PLDT WeRoam
Unlimited 3G/HSDPA Internet
Unlimited WiFi Internet (via AirborneAccess)
Unlimited GPRS/EDGE Internet
Php2,500 setup fee
Php1,700 monthly service fee (MSF)
Free use of Mobile Data Card
Globe Visibility
Unlimited 3G/HSDPA Internet
Unlimited WiFi Internet (via Globe WiZ)
Unlimited GPRS/EDGE Internet
Php2,000 setup fee
Php2,000 monthly service fee (MSF)
Free use of Mobile Data Card
If you’re always on the road and out of town, you must be dependent on some form of mobile connectivity. If not, these unlimited plans might be too expensive especially if you’re already subscribed to a DSL provider at home. So what’s a more practical solution?
Get a 3G/HSDPA capable phone, buy both Smart & Globe SIM cards and connect your laptop to GPRS/3G where ever any of the two are available. So what are the going rates? For Smart 3G, they charge Php10 per 30 minutes. As cheap as your neighborhood net cafe. For Globe Visibility, it’s Php0.15 per Kilobyte, a tad more expensive. I did tell one of the Visibility people to adopt the same pricing scheme of Smart to really get things going.
I was window shopping for a 3G capable phone yesterday and found the Nokia 6233 (as suggested by Jayvee) which retails around Php15,500 at the Nokia store. That’s about the lowest 3G phone you can get from Nokia, though I haven’t checked any other brands.
Now, you don’t have to be confused which of the competing 3G packages you’ll choose. You can have both.
You can then justify the need to get a new phone.