Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart) sees continued growth for its ‘fixed wireless’ business, which already grew 187% by P1.1 billion in the 1st half of the year as people shelter in place amid the renewed surge of COVID-19 cases.
Fixed wireless refers to wifi modems that connect multiple devices to Smart Long Term Evolution (LTE) but have to stay plugged into power, making it ‘fixed’.
"Fixed wireless is a bright spot, as demand for our Prepaid Home WiFi service grows, pushing our daily activations on an upward trend," says Jane J. Basas, Smart's SVP and Head of Consumer Wireless Business.
"The power of fixed wireless is that it is 'plug and play' -- no need for installations and wires. It enables us to provide broadband connectivity wherever we have 4G/LTE coverage," she explained.
Notably, Smart's fixed wireless new subscribers grow by as much as 200% month-on-month.
In the New Normal, families gearing up for another school year of taking online classes and continuing their work-from-home setup need for more data to accomplish daily tasks and stay productive online.
Smart currently serves the most number of data users in the Philippines at 39.5 million.