WATERLOO, ON – Philippines wireless services provider Smart Communications is using Sandvine's network policy control solutions to support PowerApp – the world's first mobile Internet store, which allows users to purchase "bite-sized", application-specific, mobile service plans to fit their particular preferences and needs.
PowerApp, developed by Smart Communications' technology partner Chikka Philippines and launched in December 2013, communicates with the data network to enable applications to dispense mobile data on demand, at precise speeds and bandwidths.
Integrated with Sandvine's usage management solution, PowerApp offers users service plans like Email, Chat, Photo and Social, in 15-minute, 3-hour or per-day unlimited access, depending on the particular application and plan, for a fixed price. The packages also provide ‘always-on’ access to apps anywhere, without the need for a Wi-Fi connection.
"To meet the needs of this emerging market segment, Smart Communications needed to quickly create new, innovative, app-like mobile data plans that offered access to highly-valued applications in affordable, bite-sized increments," said Sandvine’s co-founder and COO, sales and global services, Tom Donnelly, in the news release. "Sandvine's Usage Management product offers the flexibility, ease-of-deployment and time-to-market advantages that rigid incumbent solutions, which rely heavily on custom professional services, could never deliver."
"In the Philippines, nearly 95% of subscribers are on pre-paid or pay-as-you-go plans. PowerApp represents an affordable model that makes sustainable economic sense for consumers and for telcos, which are able to distribute data more efficiently and profitably across all customer segments," added Michele Curran, data and international services head at Smart Communications. "With the perspective of emerging markets, Chikka together with Sandvine helped rationalize the mobile data business for Smart Communications, and together we are helping lead the worldwide race to connect the unconnected."
