You must have already heard by now that Globe Telecom will be the official mobile carrier to offer the iPhone here in the Philippines.
Got wind of this news via Yuga and already most of the bloggers in my reading list have also blogged about it. It all started when this official statement from Globe Telecom’s corporate site was published:
Globe, SingTel, Bharti Airtel and Optus to bring iPhone to the region
Manila, 12 May 2008 – Globe, SingTel, Bharti Airtel and Optus today announced that they have signed an agreement with Apple to bring the iPhone to the Philippines, Singapore, India, and Australia later this year.
More information will be released at a later date.
This has already been met with mixed reactions. Those wishing for an iPhone and get it the ‘legitimate’ way were happy that finally a local mobile carrier has been chosen by Apple to offer its iPhone in the country. However, the excitement was dampened a bit by some who expressed their reservations about Globe Telecom bagging the deal and not Smart Communications.
Kastor commented on Yuga’s blog:
at bakit kaya Globe ang nakakuha sa deal? dahil sa singtel? sayang! mas maganda sana kung smart. lalo na sa 3G services. globe sucks big time pagdating sa 3G. i bet na yung 3G iphone ang ilalako sa pilipinas.
Mark Tesch shares the same views on Max Limpag’s blog:
Surprising that Globe was chosen over Smart seeing as Globe has some of the worst coverage and most outrageous plans in the Philippines:p Guess Apple has to start somewhere and then learn from their mistakes, I guess:p
On the other hand, BigBird takes the opposite side on his comment back on Yuga’s post:
As experienced with both 3G lines and similar phone models. I say that Globe 3G is much faster compared to my SMART 3G thats for sure! I Test it side by side in almost any location I can be. SMART shows strong in the Forth Area in Taguig. Rather the less I say Globe 3G is much faster than SMART 3G prang WAP. I even swap sims. But unfortunately Globe billing suchs! SMART improved its billing lately as I haved noticed but have system downtime in the early 4-7 am everyday. nagtitipid!!!!! Di mo sya magagamit at this times promise… Always online lang kasi ako!
I never tried Globe’s 3G services before so I really can’t say anything about it. Is Smart’s 3G services much better than Globe’s? Nonetheless, it seems that the iPhone hype would not be revived here in the Philippines or in the region as well thanks to these mixed reactions and to the so-called ‘grey’ iPhone users. Still more questions arise, will Smart also land an iPhone deal? Will Globe have a huge success with the iPhone?
What do you guys think? Was it really a good move for Apple to link up with Globe or it should have picked Smart instead?
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Julius aka "Jhay" Rocas has been blogging since 2006. He is a certified geek. New Media publisher/Professional blogger and Internet ninja. Youth activist. He blogs about tech news, gadgets and social commentary. 
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
bagay sa globe ang iphone ayaw nila mag mukang badoy ang iphone kaya di sila nag smart…
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It's a good news actually. Globe will be carrying iPhone in the philippines soon…
You may read the story here:
iPhone in the Philippines
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Globe's 3G reception isn't so powerful in the Diliman area. I can get a 3G signal when I'm home (in UP Village) but seldom get any 3G reception within the UP Diliman Campus. Yes, I am able to get 3G reception, but I automatically get switched to 2G whenever I surf the Internet with my phone.
globe's 3g network sucks. big time. i've tried both smart and globe's 3g, with smart, i am quite satisfied. with globe, i got stressed out.
I use Smart 3G. And I'm starting to lose my patience. I get frequent disconnections, slow throughput (way below the advertised 384kbps. I get less than half). But I'm stuck with Smart until July…
I'm skeptic with Globe's time-based charging. But thankfully, they were transparent enough to say that if you get disconnected before the end of your 15 minute block, say goodbye to your P5. After reading that, I never thought about using Globe's time-based charging.
To conclude, Globe and Smart both suck at 3G
Based on my experience, Globe’s 3G sucks big time while Smart’s works perfectly fine.
No excitement on the iPhone anyway…LOL I’ve tried using one last year in Burbank, it sucks.. LOL