A key official of Globe Telecom said that there is a strong potential for mobile phones to be used as a medium for brands to reach their target audience.
“The mobile phone has clearly taken great prominence in the human value chain. Time Magazine’s Mobility Poll revealed that out of 5,000 respondents across eight countries, 68 percent sleep with their mobile phones next to them, and 66 percent would rather take their mobile phones to work instead of lunch,” said Ernest Cu, president and chief executive officer of Globe.

Cu expressed bullish prospects about the growing ubiquity of mobile phones in the Philippines, with mobile set to change the landscape of traditional advertising in the country.

As keynote speaker at the 2012 Mobile Marketing Conference of the Internet and Mobile Marketing Association of the Philippines (Immap) with his speech: “How Mobile is Changing the Advertising Industry,” Cu cited the strong potential of mobile phones as an effective medium for brands to reach target audiences.

Citing an example closer to home, Cu revealed that in the Philippines, nine out of 10 people own mobile phones, putting mobile phone penetration at its highest peak compared to any other form of medium such as television.

“Indeed, mobile is the way to go to connect with and engage today’s consumers, as well as to create a rich consumer experience that goes beyond traditional marketing,” he said.

The official said that the use of mobile phones as a channel to communicate with a target market pushes brand activation to the limits of a consumer’s imagination, citing augmented reality as an effective platform to bring advertising campaigns to life.

Cu also said that mobile advertising opens creative corridors for dynamic and more compelling content, capitalizing on strong visual stimulation to entice consumers further.

Lastly, the Globe official hyped the interactivity that mobile encourages, allowing consumers to instantly send feedback, making the retail experience more relevant and meaningful.

“Mobile technology has definitely changed the way brands talk to their consumers. Because it’s so personal and powerful, it enables the unique efficiency of reaching out to very precise target markets with mobile advertising-driven campaigns hinging on the capability to profile customers and touch them directly,” said Cu.

In 2010, Globe partnered with Out There Media in launching its mobile advertising platform called My Rewards, My Globe Plus, now with over two million opt-in subscribers. Top consumer brands such as McDonald’s, Clear and Sunsilk have effectively used the platform to engage and establish affinity with their target consumers.

Taking the track of extensively profiling the customer, Globe is embarking on a massive $90-million information technology and systems transformation that will monitor demographics, usage, product subscriptions, transactions, bill payment and behavior of its subscribers.

“As soon as we see that a customer has the propensity to top up load, to roam, or to subscribe to a promo on any given day, we can push the relevant service in an instant, to the right customer, at the right time,” Cu said.

http://www.manilatimes.net/index.php/business/top-business-news/38922-globe-sees-cell-phones-changing-advertising

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A key official of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) said on Friday that the country’s two largest telecommunications firms “for the first time both passed” the Quality of Service Benchmarking test for their networks.

According to NTC Director Edgardo Cabarios, Globe Telecom Inc. and Smart Communication Inc. passed the standard for Grade of Service for the month of December 2012, based on benchmarking made by the commission.

In a test that measures network performance based on NTC’s minimum service performance standard for the month of December, Smart and Globe passed the standard Grade of Service, which is at 4 percent. Smart got 1 percent while Globe Telecom had 2 percent.

“We will work hard to do even better,” said Ramon Isberto, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co./Smart Public Affairs head.

Globe said in a text message that they have yet to see the results of the tests.

The tests were conducted using postpaid Globe and Smart’s subscriber identity module (SIM) cards subscribing to regular services and not unlimited services. Sun SIMs, Talk and Text SIMs, Red Mobile SIMs and Touch Mobile SIMs were not used because these SIMs are sharing the networks of either Globe or Smart. The NTC monitoring team made sure that the locations where the tests were conducted and the SIMs were not known to anyone to anyone, except to the members of the monitoring team.

The monitoring teams conducted tests for one week during December 2012 to determine the quality
of service rendered during the holiday season.

The monitoring team made the calls using the “drive test” method, or while inside a moving vehicle.

Results
Block Calls or Grade of Service (GoS) refers to the percentage of calls that were not given access by the network. Based on the test conducted on GoS, Smart was measured at 1 percent, which is the lowest percentage, establishing an edge over Globe, which got 2 percent. Both passed the less than or equal to 4 percent performance standard of the commission, meaning no more than four blocked calls is allowed for every 100 call attempts.

For Dropped Call Rate, or the percentage of ongoing calls that there were involuntarily terminated, both companies passed the minimum 2 percent. Again Smart ranked first with 1 percent dropped calls, followed by Globe at 1.2 percent.

For Average Received Signal Level, Smart had an edge over Globe. Smart measured at -64.49dBm and Globe registered at -71.78dBm. The industry standard for Average Receive Signal Level is more than or equal -85dBm.

For Average Signal Quality (ASQ), Smart got 0.67 and Globe, 0.94. The minimum acceptable range for this item is from zero to four, and the closer to zero, the better. Signal quality zero indicates that there are no errors in transmission.

ASQ is the quality of voice transmission while a subscriber is using a mobile phone. The transmission should not be choppy or garbled.

Call Set-Up Time refers to the time required for the network to activate the called party. In simple terms, this refers to the period required from the time a subscribers finished dialing to the time of the first ring.

Call set-up time for both telecom service providers were within the acceptable industry standard of below 14 seconds. Smart registered 11.12 seconds while Globe got 11.98 seconds.

The commission will continuously monitor the service performance of the telcos to ensure the quality of their services to the public.

http://www.manilatimes.net/index.php/business/top-business-news/39148-smart-globe-pass-ntc-quality-network-tests

News from the Manila Times

The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) recommended the adoption of the Japanese standard for the Philippines’ migration to digital terrestrial television.

“We recommend the Japanese [technology],” said NTC Commissioner Gamaliel Cordova.

The commission cited some advantages of using Japanese technology like having early warning devices for tsunami and earthquakes, that sends alerts from 30 seconds to one minute depending on location. It is more cheaper and it can also use mobile phones as TV monitors.

ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp. said recently that it has spent almost a billion pesos to go into digital TV.

The Lopez-led said that it is just waiting for the government to issue a standard, whether that will be based on Japanese or European technology.

There were earlier reports saying that the NTC will endorse to the Palace the adoption of the Japanese standard for the Philippines’ migration to digital terrestrial TV.

Digital television is an innovative transmitting technology that has transformed television-viewing experience. It has enabled broadcasters to offer television with better picture and sound quality, and offers multiple programming choices.

In April 2011, the NTC ordered all broadcasting companies in the Philippines to shut off their analog signal by December 2015 and switch to digital broadcast. GMA Network Inc. also said recently that it would be the last network to adopt to digital television, because of the economic situation of Filipino TV viewers.

The network said it is capable of producing and broadcasting programs on high-definition or digital television, but it might still take some time before local networks could start transmitting digitally. GMA also said that the country still has a low percentage of high-definition ready TV sets versus analog TV sets.

But the broadcasting company is ready to replace its transmitter with one that has digital technology, and households can just buy set-up boxes to allow their analog television sets to receive digital signals. However, the set-up boxes are still expensive for households to purchase and GMA doesn’t have the money to give away such devices.

With the NTC choosing Japanese technology, the Philippines has foregone the adoption of the Advanced Television System Committee system implemented by North American broadcasters, which was devised as a replacement for the National Television System Committee system utilized by North America and the Philippines.

http://www.manilatimes.net/index.php/business/top-business-news/39433-ntc-favors-japanese-digital-tv-technology

News from the Manila Times

Chinese shipments of smartphones totaled 224 million units in 2012, making the country the world’s largest smartphone producer, official data showed Wednesday.

In 2012, over 730,000 Chinese apps were launched on the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad platforms, and the number of apps in China Mobile’s online Mobile Market approached 150,000, according to a statement from the China Academy of Telecommunication Research under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.Beijing-based research firm Analysys International predicted that China’s mobile Internet market will reach 429.6 billion yuan (68.19 billion U.S. dollars) in 2015.China added 50.9 million Internet users in 2012, bringing the total to 564 million at the end of last year, according to data released Tuesday by the China Internet Network Information Center.The number of mobile Internet users increased 18.1 percent to 420 million, with mobile phones becoming the primary channel for using the Internet in China.

http://www.manilatimes.net/index.php/technology/39795-china-is-top-smartphone-maker

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The freewheeling, unregulated Internet seemed to survive a push for new rules at a UN treaty meeting, but the collapse of talks leaves unanswered questions about the Web’s future.

A total of 89 countries endorsed the global treaty on telecom regulations at the UN’s International Telecommunication Union gathering in Dubai on Friday, but the United States and dozens of others refused to sign, saying it opened the door to regulating the Internet.

ITU chief Hamadoun Toure insisted that the treaty had nothing to do with the Internet, despite what he called “a non-binding resolution which aims at fostering the development and growth of the Internet.”

“This conference was not about the Internet control or Internet governance, and indeed there are no provisions on the Internet,” the ITU secretary-general told participants at the signing ceremony.

But James Lewis, who follows Internet governance at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, said backers of the treaty distorted the facts.

“They were lying,” he said. “It was totally about the Internet.”

Lewis told AFP the ITU lost credibility because “they swore up and down there wouldn’t be a vote, that a decision would be by consensus, and then they took a vote.”

The outcome underscored a deep divide between the US and its allies, which seek to keep the Internet open and unregulated, and authoritarian regimes that want to impose controls over online use and content.

Russia, China and Saudi Arabia have been among countries seeking such changes.

Still, Lewis said the World Conference on International Telecommunication, organized by the ITU in Dubai, failed to wrest control of the Internet addressing system from the global nonprofit group called ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.

It remains unclear, said Lewis, whether the treaty can even become effective without a majority of the 193 ITU members endorsing it.

“The ITU has to suspend consensus rules to say this treaty is to take effect, and then it becomes an issue for the lawyers,” he said, adding that the matter could end up before the UN Security Council.

US officials, who led opposition to new Internet rules, said the document adopted in Dubai will have little immediate impact.

Countries can exercise control of online activity within their borders, but Washington and others objected to a treaty that would legitimize new Internet controls under UN auspices.

The head of the US delegation, Terry Kramer, walked out of the hall as the signing started after protesting that the treaty was “seeking to insert governmental control over Internet governance.”

That position drew praise from lawmakers and activists back home.

House Cybersecurity Caucus co-chairs Jim Langevin and Michael McCaul said the treaty, if implemented, “would result in a significant setback for anyone who believes free expression is a universal right.”

Google, another critic of the conference, said that many governments taking part in Dubai proved they wanted increased censorship.

“What is clear from the ITU meeting in Dubai is that many governments want to increase regulation and censorship of the Internet,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement.

“We stand with the countries who refuse to sign this treaty and also with the millions of voices who have joined us to support a free and open Web.”

Kieren McCarthy, general manager of the Global Internet Business Coalition, called the outcome in Dubai “a humiliating failure” for the UN agency.

“The collapse will come as a severe embarrassment to the ITU,” McCarthy said in a blog post. “Efforts to bring its core telecom regulations into the Internet era had exposed the organization to modern realities that it was incapable of dealing with.”

Milton Mueller, an Internet governance specialist at Syracuse University, said it’s not clear if the new language is a threat to a free Internet.

“While I didn’t like the resolution nor did most Internet rights advocates, I doubt if its passage would in itself be able to do much harm,” he said.

But Mueller said the diplomatic efforts were complicated by concerns in some countries — mainly with “bad” human rights records — who object to US sanctions that can cut off access to certain Internet services such as those from Google.

“Weird and ironic, in that it is the pro-human rights nations that are using denial of access to Internet services as a form of policy leverage, and the anti-human rights nations that are claiming a universal right of Internet access,” Mueller said.

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/global-filipino/world/12/15/12/confusion-internet-future-after-un-treaty-split

News from the Manila Times