Smart Communications Inc., commonly referred to as Smart (and officially stylized/ self-styled as SMART), is a wholly owned

wireless communications Wireless communication (or just wireless, when the context allows) is the transfer of information between two or more points without the use of an electrical conductor, optical fiber or other continuous guided medium for the transfer. The most ...

and digital services subsidiary of

PLDT PLDT, Inc., formerly known as the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company ( fil, Kompanya ng Teleponong Pangmalayuan ng Pilipinas), is a Philippine telecommunications, internet and digital service holdings company. It is one of the country's ...

Inc., a telecommunications and digital services provider based in the Philippines. The company has 73 million mobile subscribers as of 2020, under the brands Smart,

Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...

, and

TNT Trinitrotoluene (), more commonly known as TNT, more specifically 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, and by its preferred IUPAC name 2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene, is a chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO2)3CH3. TNT is occasionally used as a reagen ...

. Smart's wireless broadband subscribers number 3.8 million under the brands Smart Bro and Sun Wireless Broadband. Smart offers commercial wireless services through its 2G, 3G,

3.5G High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) is an amalgamation of two mobile protocols—High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) and High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA)—that extends and improves the performance of existing 3G mobile telecommunic ...

HSPA+ Evolved High Speed Packet Access, HSPA+, HSPA (Plus) or HSPAP, is a technical standard for wireless broadband telecommunication. It is the second phase of HSPA which has been introduced in 3GPP release 7 and being further improved in later 3GPP ...

, 4G LTE, and

LTE-A LTE Advanced (LTE+) is a mobile communication standard and a major enhancement of the LTE (telecommunication), Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard. It was formally submitted as a candidate 4G to ITU-T in late 2009 as meeting the requirements of t ...

networks, with 5G currently being deployed in multiple locations in the Philippines. Smart's terrestrial wireless telephony service is being complemented by its

satellite communication A communications satellite is an artificial satellite that relays and amplifies radio telecommunication signals via a transponder; it creates a communication channel between a source transmitter and a receiver at different locations on Earth. C ...

services Smart Sat and Marino which also serve the global maritime industry. The company has introduced wireless offerings such as Smart Money, a mobile electronic wallet that also enables its SMS-based money remittance service Smart Padala (now integrated with

PayMaya Maya (formerly known as PayMaya powered by PayMaya Philippines, Inc. and prior to that, as Smart Money powered by Smart e-Money, Inc.), is a Philippine financial services and digital payments company based in Metro Manila, Philippines. Smart ...

). It has also been recognized for introducing the world's first over-the-air electronic prepaid loading service called Smart Load. One of its services, PasaLoad, allows its users to pass phone credits to other Smart prepaid accounts through SMS.

History

Anticipating the liberalization of the telecommunications industry in the Philippines a group of Filipino investors led by Orlando B. Vea and David T. Fernando organized Smart (then named Smart Information Technology, Inc.) on January 24, 1991. The company obtained its congressional franchise in April 1992 and was granted a provisional authority to operate a mobile cellular service in May 1993. In December 1993, Smart commenced commercial operations of its cellular service. By then, Smart had drawn in partners. These were:

First Pacific First Pacific Company Limited () is a Hong Kong-based investment management and holding company with operations located in Asia. It involves telecommunications, consumer food products and infrastructure. History * 1981: First Pacific Financ ...

, a Hong Kong-based conglomerate through its Philippine flagship

Metro Pacific Investments Corporation Metro Pacific Investments Corporation (MPIC) is a Philippine-based unit investment holding company of First Pacific Company Limited through Metro Pacific Holdings, Inc. MPIC through its subsidiaries, provides water, sanitation, and sewerage se ...

and

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone , commonly known as NTT, is a Japanese telecommunications company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. Ranked 55th in ''Fortune'' Global 500, NTT is the fourth largest telecommunications company in the world in terms of revenue, as well as the third la ...

of Japan (NTT). In compliance with the government's telecommunications program, Smart established a local exchange service in the cities and provinces assigned to it under the "service area scheme." The company also obtained licenses to provide international gateway, paging and inter-carrier transmission services. On March 24, 2000, PLDT completed its share-swap acquisition of Smart, making Smart a 100%-owned PLDT subsidiary. In February 2011, Smart unveiled the Netphone, its own line of Android-compliant smartphones designed for emerging markets at the

GSMA The GSM Association (commonly referred to as 'the GSMA' or ''Global System for Mobile Communications'', originally ''Groupe Spécial Mobile'') is an industry organisation that represents the interests of mobile network operators worldwide. More ...

Mobile World Congress MWC Barcelona (formerly but still commonly referred to as Mobile World Congress) is an annual trade show organised by GSMA, dedicated primarily to the mobile communications industry. The event is held in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain at the ...

Barcelona, Spain Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

. The Netphone was introduced as the world's first smartphone backed by an operator-managed platform. On August 25, 2012, Smart launched the Philippines' first 4G mobile broadband commercial service running on LTE technology. On April 13, 2016, Smart introduced the first commercial LTE-A Service in

Boracay Boracay (; often locally shortened to Bora) is a resort island in the Western Visayas region of the Philippines, located off the northwest coast of Panay. It has a total land area of , under the jurisdiction of three barangays in Malay, Akla ...

Aklan Aklan, officially the Province of Aklan ( Akeanon: ''Probinsya it Akean'' k'ɣan hil, Kapuoran sang Aklan; tl, Lalawigan ng Aklan), is a province in the Western Visayas region of the Philippines. Its capital is Kalibo. The province is situa ...

. On June 13, 2016, Smart and its parent company PLDT unveiled their new logos and identity as part of the company's continuing digital pivot. In February 2017, Smart and parent company PLDT signed a memorandum of understanding with China-based

Huawei Technologies Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. ( ; ) is a Chinese multinational technology corporation headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China. It designs, develops, produces and sells telecommunications equipment, consumer electronics and various smar ...

"to shape the strategic and commercial development of the 5G ecosystem in the Philippines". On April 21, 2017,

Philippine President The president of the Philippines ( fil, Pangulo ng Pilipinas, sometimes referred to as ''Presidente ng Pilipinas'') is the head of state, head of government and chief executive of the Philippines. The president leads the executive branch of t ...

Rodrigo Duterte Rodrigo Roa Duterte (, ; born March 28, 1945), also known as Digong, Rody, and by the initials DU30 and PRRD, is a Filipino lawyer and politician who served as the 16th president of the Philippines from 2016 to 2022. He is the chairperson ...

signed Republic Act No. 10926 which renewed Smart's license for another 25 years. The law granted Smart a franchise to establish, maintain, lease and operate integrated telecommunications, computers, electronics, and stations throughout the Philippines. In October 2018, petitioners asked the Supreme Court to stop

Globe A globe is a spherical model of Earth, of some other celestial body, or of the celestial sphere. Globes serve purposes similar to maps, but unlike maps, they do not distort the surface that they portray except to scale it down. A model glo ...

and Smart from using the 700 MHz and Smart announced that they were working to fix its slow internet service. On July 30, 2020, Smart activated their 5G mobile network initially in Makati Central Business District, Bonifacio Global City CBD, Araneta City, SM Megamall and Mall of Asia Bay Area.

Radio frequency summary

Esports

Smart and its parent company PLDT launched Omega esports, a professional esports team for

Dota 2 ''Dota 2'' is a 2013 multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) video game by Valve. The game is a sequel to '' Defense of the Ancients'' (''DotA''), a community-created mod for Blizzard Entertainment's '' Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos.'' ''Dota ...

, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, and

Tekken 7 is a fighting game developed and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. It is the seventh main and ninth overall installment in the '' Tekken '' series. ''Tekken 7'' was released to arcades in March 2015. An updated arcade version, ''Tekken ...

that competed in the

2019 The Nationals The 2019 The Nationals is the inaugural season of The Nationals, an electronic sports (Esports) league in the Philippines. The season features three titles, ''Dota 2'', '' Mobile Legends: Bang Bang'', and ''Tekken 7'' with two conferences each. ...

. It is also a major sponsor of Mobile Legends: Bang Bang esports events in the Philippines such as the previous MSC 2019.

Sports teams

TNT Tropang Giga The TNT (cellular service), TNT Tropang Giga is a professional basketball team currently owned by Smart Communications, a subsidiary of the PLDT, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT), playing in the Philippine Basketball Associat ...

( PBA basketball team) * Smart Giga Hitters ( PSL women's volleyball team)

Sponsorships

FIBA The International Basketball Federation (FIBA ; French: ) is an association of national organizations which governs the sport of basketball worldwide. Originally known as the (hence FIBA), in 1989 it dropped the word ''amateur'' from its nam ...

(International Basketball Federation), since 2020 * KCON:TACT, since 2020 *

Mnet Asian Music Awards The MAMA Awards (formerly Mnet Asian Music Awards) is a major music awards ceremony presented annually by entertainment company CJ E&M. First held in South Korea, the majority of prizes has been won by K-pop artists, although there are other ...

, since 2020 *

M Countdown ''M Countdown'' () is a South Korean music program broadcast by Mnet. The show features appearances by popular music artists who also perform live on stage. It is broadcast from CJ E&M Center Studio in Sangam-dong, Mapo District, Seoul. B ...

, since 2021

References

External links

Official Homepage
{{Malaysia mobile phone companies PLDT subsidiaries Members of the Conexus Mobile Alliance Philippine brands Mobile phone companies of the Philippines Telecommunications companies established in 1991 Companies based in Makati Philippine companies established in 1991 Internet service providers of the Philippines