At the same time, mobile commerce will flourish as more individuals and businesses take advantage of the convenience and efficiency of m-commerce platforms. The experience of Smart Load and Smart Padala has demonstrated that transactions can be safely and security handled through properly prepaid mobile communications systems.

Fixed lines will go increasingly broadband as operators push the development of their DSL services. With broadband will come more sophisticated Internet-based services.

Smart scaled new heights in 2004, introducing new brands and innovative world-first services designed for Filipinos and their families. Thus, as of end September 2004, the company served a total subscriber base of 17.5 million, up from 11.5 million the same period the previous year. Pilipino Telephone Corp. (Piltel) accounted for 4.2 million of the subscribers.

As part of its strategy to continue providing the widest range of innovative wireless services by strengthening its infrastructure, Smart acquired 40 percent of Meridian Telekoms, Inc. (MTI) last year. MTI is primarily engaged in providing wireless broadband and data services to small and mediumscale businesses nationwide.

Smart also acquired majority shares of its sister company, third largest Piltel, which offers a prepaid GSM service, known as Talk "N Text.

Aside from MTI and Piltel, Smart subsidiaries also include Smart Money Holdings Corp. (SMHC), content provider Walfac Mobile, Inc. and content center I-Contacts Corp. (ICON).

Last year, Smart’s network expanded to 36 switches and over 5,000 base stations, covering 95 percent of the country’s population. The installation of cost-effective and more efficient cell sites enabled the company to serve more subscribers.

The transmission backbone, the first land-based, scalable facility to link the Philippines westernmost province to the rest of the world – will enable Smart, Talk ‘N Text and PLDT subscribers to enjoy clearer voice calls and use advanced telecommunications services which were not previously possible using satellite transmission systems. These include multimedia messaging and mobile Internet.

The backbone consisting of 21 relay stations stretched over a distance of 813 kilometers, will also service the requirements of other companies in the province. The construction of the transmission backbone facility was done in two phases. Phase I, completed in June 2003 covers the north mainland up to Puerto Princesa City. Phase 2 was completed in December last year.

Last year, Smart introduced over 500 regular, special and promo-based value-added services (VAS). These include among others, the famous caller ring back tunes or ringtunes, logo downloads, tie-ups with institutions for text voting services, mobile coupons, and tieups with other companies such as McDonalds.

Smart Padala, the first and only international cash remittance through text was launched in August 1, 2004. It is a Filipino household world akin to remittance, which is a means of financial support from the estimated 8 million family members or relatives working abroad.

Smart Padala now has over 10,000 encashment centers nationwide, including over 100 Smart Wireless Centers, McDonald’s branches, Video City branches, Shoemart Department Stores, Seaoil gasoline station, Tambunting pawnshop branches and selected Smart Load retailers.

Remittance partners now include CBN Grupo (UK, Ireland, Greece, Spain, Japan), Forex HK (HK), I-Remit (HK and Australia), GP Express (Brunei, Israel, Taiwan). DAX. (USA), New York Bay (USA), Travelex (Worldwide), Banco de Oro (HK).

The Smart Multi-line SIM that gives subscriber the flexibility of having up to five mobile numbers using just one sim was introduced. It is open to Smart Infinity, Smart Gold, Addict mobile, Smart Buddy and Talk ‘N Text.subscribers.

The Smart Load won the Best Mobile Application Service-consumer market award at the GSM Awards held in Cannes, France in February 2004. Smart bested three other short-listed nominees for the award: United Arab Emirates’ Ducont FZ-LLC, mobilkom Austria AG & Co. KG, and London-based Shazam Entertainment. The award was given by the GSM Association, the global trade association of GSM mobile operators and equipment suppliers.

In August last year, 1528 Smart was launched in Hong Kong. It is a prepaid GSM mobile phone service designed and packaged for the Filipino community. It is a partnership of Hong Kong CSI Ltd. and PLDT (HK) Ltd./PLDT Global, in close collaboration with Smart.

Smart also introduced new brands like Smart Infinity, Smart Kid, Smart Kid prepaid.

In the first quarter of 2004, Smart entered into a partnership with ATM consortium Megalink, for its mobile banking service (MBS). As of December last year, Smart MBS partner banks include the Philippine National Bank, Development Bank of the Philippines, United Coconut Planters Bank, Insular Bank, Bank of Commerce, Asiatrust Bank, Keppel Bank of the Philippines, May Bank, Union Bank of the Philippines, Metropolitan Bank and Trust Company, among others.

The company also offers the AceS satellite phone service in 10-Asia Pacific countries through tie-ups with national carriers and international distributors. Some of these countries are Sri Lanka, Palau, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Japan, China, Nepal and Papua New Guinea.

Smart, through PLDT subsidiary and sister company AceS Philippine Cellular Satellite Corp. has a reseller agreement with Mobitel of Sri Lanka, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sri Lanka Telecom. It is also forging partnerships with more telecommunications companies in countries like Solomon Islands, Korea, Vietnam, among others.

In 2004, I-CON, the contact center subsidiary of Smart, received 37 million calls with a daily average of an estimated 100,000 calls. Support programs that were developed to handle the consistent influx of calls include: the re-allocation of staff to better serve different needs of subscribers and continuous agent training for various services.

In June last year, Smart joined an international organization of major mobile phone operators that aims to define widely accepted requirements for an open mobile terminal platform. Called the OMTP, the other founding members are mm02, NTT DoCoMo, Orange, Telefonica Movies, TIM, T-Mobile and Vodafone.

The company is also a member of the Asia Mobility Alliance, a group of operators in the Asia Pacific that cooperates on initiatives and jointly develops products and services designed to enhance the experience of mobile phone users. Member operators have a combined 30 million subscribers.

The Smart Wireless Engineering Education Program (SWEEP) targets 31 more schools this year. Since it was launch in 2003, 41 colleges and universities offering ECE nationwide are now equipped with Smart Wireless Laboratories.

It also launched the Smart Schools Program that aims to empower public high schools nationwide by providing educators information technology tools, training and support such as access to e-learning resources