Contact Islands '21: Re-igniting Growith in the new Business Environment

Just got off the CCAP Contact Islands '21 virtual conference supported by PLDT Entertprise and I've learned a lot of things. The theme this year is "Re-igniting Growith in the new Business Environment. The first day discusses Customer Service in the time of COVID. True enough, we're all stuck at home covering this but things are pushing through.


Bea Lim, Managing Director for TeamAsia stood as host. During the opening remarks, Jojo Uligan the President of Contact Center Association of the Philippines says "We're excited to have the Contact Islands 2021 event this year. From the CCAP members, government members, and our allies, welcome to the event. Last year, 6-700 people attende this event last year despite conditions, but this year we're going to have almost 1000 people to join us. We are celebrating our 20th year, our founding annivesary. We started in 2001, and we promise to celebrate in a big way. When we started, employee accounts to about 2000 people, but now we're close to a million employees in this industry. Now we have 20+ members, so please join us by celebrating this in 2021, we will invite all of you before the year ends. The volcanic eruption, earthquake, typhoon and the pandemic has challenged us, we're inviting industry leaders so we could learn how to navigate the business in this session. This is a whole week of exciting topics and discussions on how we could grow this industry and get through all these challenges. You can visit the sessions, look at our lobbies, talk to one another in our networking sessions, you can take advantage of who our partners are. We hope to be more interactive in Airmeet, this will also allow you to engage with other delegates and do networking. We have companies sharing their stories, best practices, showcase what they have in their company and our exhibitors to show you what they have that could help us. In behalf of CCAP, we thank you!"

Benedict Hernandez, Chairman of the Board of Contact Center Association of the Philippines says "We had a really successful conference last year and we want to take advantage of that now. The last 18 months have been challenging, it's been a period of uncertainty, confusion, frustration, but still have determination. We keep moving forward, we embody resiliency, we want to have a rebound in the contact center industry, we see growth, the Philippines is still growing faster, our ability to expand is our secret, we outpace others, we have had incredible cooperation with the government. We are an essential part of growth and continue to lead in creating more jobs and helping the Philippines to have uninterrupted year on year growth despite the things that are happening today. We are a durable sector, the global IT BPM services market has rebounded in 2021, and this is just a tipping point that we need a digital ICT industry to induce growth. We continue to have growth in the global market forecast, while others struggle. There's no one better than us. If you think about the impact of 20 years of employment growth is huge, that's 1.3 Million, in highly skilled and highly paid careers. We have size, scale, we have the ability to grow. The pandemic has devastated other industries, but we continue to lead in job generation and economic recovery. We continue to prioritize the health of our employees, coordinate with government agencies for vaccination so we get herd immunity. Our capacity to layout fiber in homes were ramped up, there's a lot more to catch up still. This enables our people to be productive at popup sites, even at home. This pandemic made customers realize the need to digitize, to do work from home. We're still learning, in a sustained manner, as a hybrid model. We have discussions on the business environment in the future sessions (on Friday) and we look forward to see that, hope you get inspired how to do a rebound, to help the Philippines get back on its feet."

 

Customer Service Management at the time of COVID

 

The IT BPM industry has bounced back from reduced productivity levels. To get you a picture of what has happened in the CXM services, data was presented by Shirley Hung of the Everest Group.

Shirley Hung, Business Process Services for the Everest Group says "We are a global market research firm focused on global trends. The global economy has shrunk 4% but the CXM Global Market has continued to grow at 4.8%, recovering by late last year. This is eyed to continue in the next few years. It shows a great bounce back, growth has been seen even this year in Contact Center Services showing resiliency in these hard times without any major incidents. They worked on AI based customer inquiries while they prepare agents for remote work. Banking, Health Care, were all set in home environments without compromising security. Companies prioritized customer experience, set changes in business models. This is called new generation services. Outsourcing are low, but gorwing fast for service providers. It's not all sunshine and rainbows, in our last report we had 40 services providers, some winners, some are losers. Some grew and expand during these times, did growth by expanding, successfully leveraging digital work at home solutions. Revenues are grown faster, enablers, growing dependents for their CXM services. Some are hit the hardest during the pandemics, losing clients, laying off agents, now they are re-calibrating for their growth in the future. There is still a long line of providers that are also losing market shares. These are being set conservatively to 3-5% on growth rather than previous 5%. Fast paced adoption from specific industries along with digital CXM and WAHA models are driving CXM market growth. The final driver has to do with streaming, gaming, fintech, CXM including vaccination and health drives. In addition there is exponential growth in the retail sector because of online sales. As the economy recovers, we will be sharing market trends in detail in the future. Over the next 3-4 years, the WAHA model would be normalized and some industries are still going to be very strict in security especially for banking and health sectors. In the coming years, there will be some who will return in offices. The number of organizations doing AI, digital transformation has doubled during this year. We are seeing fantastic cases marrying digital and personal CXM plans, to hopefully inspire you and include it in your business plans next year."

How is the business world doing?

Rakesh Agarwal, Partner and head of Supply Chain and Enterprise Transformation KPMG Singapore and Indonesia says "Disruption is going to be a new reality. The financial crisis, terrorist attach, market crash, they happen every two years and businesses should be more agile. COVID happened affected businesses late 2020, organizations looked at finances and see how they could conserve revenue, what they need to do in order to keep their investments. Lights should be on, customers should be served, it was challenging and CEO's have tons of stories that are interesting especially in the supply chain and how they were able to keep their production on despite challenges. They were confused, have less morale, organizations faced a lot of issues. Leadership challenges was significant. How could one manage a company remotely, but later realized it could be done. Now they need to adapt into a new business model. With the support of digital tools and collaborations, it was done. Organizations encountered management disruptions during the first few months of COVID. Working capital, workforce, loss of revenue, they also needed to understand how they would continue their operations. Companies regained balance within 6-12 months after, demand then has come back and supply chains have been ready. They might not have seen multiple waves of COVID, but they evaluate things how critical supply should be not in a distribution risk by talking to worker unions and organizations in the industry. Today they need to ensure to continue to be productive, talk about planning, results, but need to talk about supply chain risks, how they could be apt for digital transformation. Working at home posed a lot of security risk, there's also a need to reduce cost, and supply chain delays has been also an issue. Deliveries are struggling, but have since then settled. Despite that, consumer spending has normalized quite fast as what was expected. Reasons for this are fiscal assistance, working normally, supported job losses, technology also played a big role so a lot of people can work at home. There's a lot of ways businesses can leverage from. Business model and operations will have permanent changes. Growth prospects are keen in the next three years. "

Consumers want more sustainable, more climate friendly products. There's a huge demand for it. It's important to bring this when consulting organizations, on how they would be aligning with it in the next few years. Digitalization though is highly critical, businesses should go more into this. It's not about "being" but "doing". Forecast the demand, and plan ahead but talking to stakeholders ahead of time.

As organizations become more comfortable in outsourcing, companies are going to leverage that even more. Growth is seen beyond next year, and hopefully, we'll all become normal (of what is normal). What's vital in the Philippines is building resliency, having business continuity despite political, health, or other disruptions that may come up. This is key. Thank you to CCAP and PLDT Enterprise for having us in the event, I learned a lot and I hope I got to share the important things these experts shared during the first day of Contact Islands 2021.

PLDT Enterprise Launches Beyond Fiber

Had the time of my life listening in to executives and media during the Beyond Fiber event. Their call is adapt, evolve, become better, faster, rediscover and reinvent. This is their way for us to step into a new day. They are offering Business Grade Fiber connections at 2,500 pesos a month plus a lot of other things.

Business Offers

In these difficult moments, growth takes place. It allows PLDT Enterprise to discover more despite the odds. This is beyond connectivity PLDT Enterprise offers, they call it Beyond Fiber.

They were excited to tell us about how PLDT Enterprise will support business enterprises.

Jojo Gendrano says “5-10 MBPS was okay before, about 80 percent are millennials and e-commerce consumers are included. We are now up by 25% in data usage, businesses of all sizes need to be connected and invested in infrastructure of about 322,000 km of fiber optic cables, and these are essentials to more reliable connectivity in the workplace. It goes to say they need IT support, cashless transactions, curated digital tools and service they deserve. They will have dedicated enterprise support to deliver more value for our end customers. For telecommute and work from home networks, we will provide the same policies as their offices for security and the guidelines they have.”

Gary Ignacio VP For Fixed Core Services PLDT Enterprise “We make sure to deliver at least 50 Mbps on Business Grade Fiber. A wifi fit for enterprise which is Cisco Meraki including cloud services to manage and view things remotely. This is ideal for stores and branches, enhanced security, separate business and customer networks to look beyond just fiber. This is just 2,500 per month including taxes. This includes Microsoft 365, included in packages. We also have ePLDT Cyber Security Endpoint Advanced Security, we will also work with PayMaya for credit card and cashless with QR codes. New easy to deploy wifi solutions, managed equipment so employees can connect to their network and do VPN if they are working remotely. ”

Orlando Vea of Voyager Innovations says “Cashless and Contactless solutions is King. There’s no need to prove that point now. For SME’s, you can do PayMaya. We are more about the digital wallet, we are here to help you get payment options like credit cards, debit cards, prepaid, online, give solutions like our big customers.”

They will be providing it FREE for the first three months. They want to be able to help and prioritizing needs accordingly. It’s available for businesses of all sizes, the idea is to provide stable fiber and build create support businesses. Beyond Fiber is a promise to enterprise customers, developed for SME’s in mind, to leverage the fiber and make it as cheap as possible to start up our economy. When it comes to Beyond Fiber, this will help a lot of people and make people thing about solid fiber solutions that businesses should get.

Wifi, landline, add ons like a secure network gateway (VPN via Cisco Meraki), other solutions soon. For existing customers, it will be seamless as it will be done like the upgrade process of PLDT. Only for Php 2,500. Now go ahead and ask about it, you’re going to make your network better and so much more!

Look Beyond Fiber!

Last Day To Get Php 150 OFF On Your Phone Bills

Just a few days ago, I told you how to get 100 pesos off your PLDT bill and 50 pesos off your Smart Postpaid bill. I am here to let you know, that it is the last day to get your vouchers as a form of Balik Bayad when paying bills through PayMaya.  

All you had to do is pay for it through the app as cashless transactions are made easier with it and after that, you'll get a notification that you're getting a voucher in return. I have proven this myself by paying for my PLDT landline and Smart Postpaid plan recently, then got the vouchers a few minutes after that. I can use the funds for other things like food and supplies especially as ECQ is upon us.

It's even easy to claim a voucher on the app!

Don't say I didn't tell you about it, because this isn't the first time I'm writing about it. Ha! They're practically giving money and all you had to do is pay your bills conveniently. (Just follow the steps to qualify for it)

Who wouldn't want that to happen right?! 

How To Get 100 Pesos Off Your PLDT Bill

I don't know about you guys but I'm feeling a little down because of the big bills coming and I'm part of the statistic of now work, no pay. Well, I got a tip from a notification of my PayMaya app the other day saying I could save 100 pesos off of my PLDT bill and tried if it works. 

I paid the usual bill which costs a little over 1k, which is the amount they say you should pay on the app so you can get the Php 100 Balik Bayad according to the promo.

After paying, I got a text message confirming my payment then another one saying I received a voucher for the 100 peso to be returned to me.

I just went to the app (it must be updated to see the VOUCHER option) then claimed it. After a few seconds I already got the notification that I got it back. After seeing that offer, there were two more on the app indicating Php50 OFF if I pay for my Smart Postpaid and Sun bill. How can you not see the tons of savings just by paying through PayMaya?! Heck I got my money back hassle free, you've gotta try doing that now especially when times are hard.

Don't say I didn't tell you!

Register Now for Smart’s Amazing 25 Raffle Promo

Prepaid subscribers should take advantage of this because if you haven't seen Smart Communications announcements on TV, Print, Radio and Online, the you should grab your phones and do this now. Press *121# on your handset and follow the prompts, but look specifically for Smart's Amazing 25 Raffle Promo on the menu. Register there and you’ll get a chance to win a whopping 25 Million Pesos cash as their grand prize.

Carlo Andaya from Smart says “We have a good start for the year and we have launched Smart Amazing Promo last November. 25 years later we are here, everyone who subscribes to Smart, TNT and Sun will get the chance to win 25 Million Pesos. There are a lot of things you can do with that. People will also get bonuses by going to #121 for more instant wins. On February 25, everyone who joins can win, even those who have won things in December and January. Just got to #121 to register and earn raffle entries depending on the promo you buy. Postpaid subscribers get 100 entries per 1,000 pesos. Monthly draws include 25 smartphones, 2500 MVP reward credits, and the chance to win again in the Grand Draw on February. This is also tax free!”

Now make sure you do the one time registration first because without it you wouldn’t be included in the raffle. This is only for Smart, Sun, TNT subscribers and doesn’t include Smart Bro or services like it. It was designed mostly for Prepaid subscribers. If you also register to their prepaid promos, you would get more entries. Make sure you do that when your current one ends. Try the Giga Surf add ons, the Social Bundle 199, Chat Bundle 249, Non Stop 450 on Sun because those would get you even more entries. Aside from that, make sure you claim your monthly perks because I was able to do that on my Prepaid line too.

Thanks to the nice people from PLDT Smart who took time explaining to us the whole promo. I already registered, you should too!

KUMAGCOW

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Be Ready For Gabay Guro 2018

This is ther 11th year and they will not stop. 1,500 scholarship grants, 400 classrooms, more partner schools, several topnotchers, thousands of teachers from different provinces in the Philippines who benefited in this PLDT Smart Foundation led project. Training, livelihood, scholarships, computerization and innovation to help teachers get other sources of income so they too can be leaders in their own schools. Now there are wifi hotspots in schools, educational facilities, even in calamity stricken areas they are now present. Now students are getting quality education they deserve and even teachers get proper training and other courses so they can cope with technology and skills that come with it. The event also has become one of the biggest in the country and they want to bring this to other parts of the country. There is also a Gabay Guro App so news and features are communicated wherever they are. They also want to get teachers to start their own livelihood, so they have other sources of income, building the nation one teacher at a time. This they say is very important so they are doing this for all our educators.

Mother, wife Shay Cabalo Revilla says “We would like to invite you all on September 23 at the MOA Arena, Regine Velasquez, Ogie Alcasid, Randy Santiago, Gabbi Concepcion, Sharon Cuneta, Gary Valenciano, his kids, Martin Nievera, Pops Fernandez, Andrew Wolf, Jona and a lot more (surprise love teams!). They will be raffling off a car, a house, motorcycles, a van, equipment, TV’s and GC’s all for teachers. PLDT SMART will also be giving broadband kits, cellphones and groceries. There are tons of private companies that helped chip in to make this the biggest event ever.”

Recently they have been able to receive a grant of 57,000 USD from Stanford University and this will go to scholars and facilities in different parts of the country. She added “We were shortlisted from different NGO’s and charities, and this is just over and beyond what we imagined. We help put up structured educational facilities in crisis areas and that will be prioritized like recent typhoons.”

They have already done different events in different provinces and we have been able to give the same entertainment as we will also have here. We will be providing connectivity, mobile libraries, computers, so it could go out to far flung barangays and give access to people. This is an opportunity to help kids, teachers, and they connect with partners so they could earn more with their time. They are already running out of tickets and this is why they will also bring Gabay Guro to their own areas.

Gabbi Concepcion took the stage and said “My mom is a teacher and I know how important they are in our lives. We got to see teachers and just seeing them happy is enough for me. I enjoyed the tours in the province and I advise kids to love their teachers as they act as their second parents. If ever I will sing with Sharon I am okay, I am really waiting for that to happen. We haven’t talked about it yet. I will support Gabay Guro as much as I can.”

So teachers make sure to be there on the 23rd, this will be big!

KUMAGCOW

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Vivo X21 Plan with Smart

It looks like a good one already but I think it’s in the details. Good news is that VIVO just forged a partnership with the country’s biggest network via PLDT’s mobile arm Smart Communications.

You’ve seen in previous articles how nice the Vivo X21 is and this time, they’re being supported with data like no other as they offer this with Data On The Go Plan 2000 which can get you unli calls to Smart Mobile numbers and non stop surf from the same network. Now that is something you should definitely consider, more so if you are Smart’s closest corporate clients. You can get this in Php 400 amortization for 24 months and get that high end phone for that price, nothing that you could see being offered elsewhere.

This was and is still available through Smart and PLDT Corporate partners. If you’re planning to buy one now, your corporation could save a ton with this. You know when a plan is good right?

I thought so.

KUMAGCOW

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You’ll Love the MVP Rewards Card

Are you paying bills often and think it's a little troublesome? It's not giving you anything right? Well I think the payment is now going to be enjoyed even more by people like you and me if it's given importance, what do I mean? Have you ever been rewarded for just merely paying your bills? That's exactly what www.mvprewards.ph will do and more.

You see, this entity will hook you up BIGTIME with the best of the best companies under Smart and PLDT. Every time you pay your bills, you get points in exchange and no it won't be like your useless membership cards that only pile up points and expire, because the points that you'll be enjoying with the MVP Rewards Card is as GOOD AS CASH. You can use it in partner establishments, all the PLDT Group Companies (yes like your other bills!) and all you've got to do is link up your accounts, pay like the usual and you instantly earn points. Or if you want even MORE perks, you may pay it through the PAYMAYA app and get even MORE points in the process. Not only that, you can load it up and use the card as a regular VISA card then enjoy SHOPPING like no other. You can also show it around their partner establishments and enjoy special deals with them... not only that, because you will get to be part of electronic raffles in different times that would be exclusive only for MVP Rewards Card members. Isn't that neat? I know, well if you still haven't applied for one, head on to www.mvprewards.ph now and get your card now.

During the launch, we witnessed their executives excitement over the MVP Rewards Card and they told us why people should start taking advantage of it. 

Mr. Alberto of PLDT says “The PLDT group and it’s subsidiaries will be offering this to our customers, the MVP rewards is just the beginning as we reach every Filipino and add value to their lives as we aspire to be the lead technology provider to our consumers.”

Ms Anette Quiron says “One customer wallet where you can connect all our accounts. You won’t have to worry because it’s automatically credited to your virtual and physical card. You can tap it in Cavitex, pay for goods and services via Paymaya, one wallet for all rewards for the convenience of our customers on our fingertips. This is what valuable customers deserve. Everyone should have the rewards card, talk about it during Sunday lunch. Tell your friends and family because you can get more if you have it.”

Mon Isberto of PLDT says “Welcome to the world of the MVP Rewards Cards.”

Manny Pangilinan of the PLDT Group says “It originated from the fact where we see our people pay on a cashless basis through Paymaya and make people get points so they can get rewards just like what you get from banks and do it two ways. The cashless payments, trade your points to perks or miles and create a market also for these points. Aside from the PLDT companies, there will be other partner establishments and enroll your different accounts. If you pay for your utility, you’ll get points, this is what you need on top of your wallet. Your existing rewards points will still be there but January 1st hereon, you earn rewards points for paying your bills. The rewards don’t expire, it automatically credits into your Paymaya accounts as cash so you get to pay or use it for your more rewards. It’s all in one wallet. We are launching this to enrich the customer experience to deliver more to PLDT and our wireless customers.“

It's easy, it's convenient, and you get tons of perks that non members would NEVER EVER GET. So get the best out of being PLDT, Smart, TNT, SUN Postpaid and Prepaid Subscriber and get the MVP Rewards Card. Trust me, you'll love paying bills after that! Haha!

KUMAGCOW

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PLDT and Smart Communications Welcomes Kris Aquino

It looks like the Queen of all Media is now connected to the BIGGEST network. She's not only endorsing it, but she's walking the talk as she's using PLDT Home FIBR plan and Smart Communications LTE network in her business, at home and for her boys. Before she arrived, executives from PLDT told us about their milestones and talked about the current status of the network and took pride in confirming a few things especially the improvements they made in the past year. 

Alex Caeg, Head of Wireless Consumer Division for Smart says "We're happy that Open Signal has already released the report has increased it's edge of LTE Coverage nationwide. We have 60% advantage over our competitors and I think it's a big thing to enable our subscribers and educate them about this revolution to tell them about LTE. For us to bring Filipinos to the digital era, we need to upgrade them to a 4G device, to make sure their sim cards support it, in Smart, Sun Cellular and TNT, we have all these offers that people can now enjoy. This way, more people can enjoy it now. By next year, we would have 90% of our network supporting LTE. This will empower Filipinos and make everything accesible to them. iFlix, iWantTV, will now have 99 peso packages. We also are launching more Smartspots nationwide to enable communities get 100mbps capable connection, so they can feel the power of LTE at most food parks in the metro, and also in their homes if they are on our network. Our brand ambassadors will talk about it later especially on SUN and how they will move to 4G networks even for a minimal fee in these offerings. The journey has begun, it goes beyond the personalities in this room."

Marc Nelson hosted the event and I specifically heard him being invited to Kris Aquino's house so he could experience the unbelievable wifi connection they have at home. Ms. Kris laughs this off as an excuse to teach her how to swim, Marc says YES!

Speaking of people, we saw celebrities that evening which includes Jericho Rosales, Franco Laurel, Tweetie De Leon, Maxine Medina and Jennifer Hammond.

We also saw Camille Pratts, Isabel Oli and their kids who also endorses PLDT.

Spotted Vic Sotto with soon to be Mom Pauline Luna Sotto who endorses SUN Cellular.

Vic Sotto went to the center of the room and was a little quirky, he says "I'm glad and honored that I'm part of the SUN family because I play Candy Crush lol. I use data, and this relaunch means it's not just voice calls and texting, but means a LOT of people will be using data. I lurk in Instagram, even if I don't post, I see people. Congratulations to PLDT and Smart, again I'm glad to be part of the SUN family."

PLDT executives then explained "We started fiber in a few key cities and municipalities now, even far flung areas. The premier villages have it, this will enable the our consumers to have the digital lifestyle. We have condo units that don't have this yet but we're moving, and we have people experience FIBR and stay happy about it. In BGC, we have mostly all residential buildings now FIBR ready so if you live here, you're lucky! You should all be on PLDT Home tomorrow, also be connected with our streaming sites tonight. ROKU is also now available, so there's no reason why you're not enjoying our services. We want all our 2 Million homes to transfer from DSL to FIBR because there's a LOT to enjoy from this faster connection."

Ms. Kris Aquino then was introduced, she told us about how she maintains a smart home and utilize PLDT Home FIBR and LTE when she's mobile saying "Let's all admit it, traffic is terrible. I checked who is watching me and most of them are millenials and they watch me through phones. Connections have improved so much and they watch me through mobile these days and LTE doesn't buffer on me. I also love the roaming charges because it's 499 a day. The other network charges more, so you see why they got me? Haha. We need to be connected. Thank you to PLDT and Smart for making us all connected. You are the first company to invest in iFlix so I'm going there too. PLDT is an innovator, we have to give them that!"

Here are some snippets of Ms. Kris Aquino's appearance. This is her way of coming back to PLDT and Smart who has continued to believe in her and her brand.

Congratulations Ms. Kris Aquino, PLDT and Smart Communications! This surely will be fun!

The 10th Year of Gabay Guro: A Decade of Dedication and A Lifetime ofGratitude

This is the 10th year of Gabay Guro and it's one of the most awaited events by teachers in the country. This is the PLDT SMART Foundation's way of thanking the most selfless people on earth, and our second parents, our teachers. My Mom is an educator too so I know how much they have sacrificed all these years so you can go out of school learning something, that takes a lot of heart.

Gary Duhali of PLDT says "This is our biggest activity for our biggest event on our 10th year of Gabay Guro. 10 years of our Education arm of the Pldt Smart Foundation. We churn out programs and activities for teachers, we provide training programs, and they clamour for skills and now we have trained 20,000 teachers for free. We did it in Baguio, Bicol, nationwide and don't get anything for return. We also teach them livelihood programs that support their own students who are in need. We make them resellers outside of the classroom, and they don't have to use their checks anymore. We also have donated internet connection, computers, even whole classrooms. We also have 1123 scholarship grants, now having 650 graduates, 300 LET passers and over 45 partner schools making sure we have teachers in the future. We gather 20,000+ teachers and devote one day for an event last year and we are doing that again with the participation of the country's biggest performers and give prizes to change their lives. All our pillars are the driving force for Gabay Guro. Next Sunday, September 17 we want to impart a decade of dedication and a lifetime of gratitude. Only teachers will enjoy the festivities for free at the SM MOA ARENA at 2PM. Hosts will be Pia Wurtzbach, Andrew Wolf and Pops Fernandez. They have also been supporting Gabay Guro for years now. We will have Southborder, Jinky Vidal and JayR, Marian Rivera, Ogie Alcasid, Martin Nievera, Gary V, Lea Salonga, UP Pep Squad, Sarah G with the GForce, cast from The Good Son, Basil Valdez, Celeste Legaspi and a lot more!"

Chay Cabal Rodriguez, SVP and PLDT Group Controller Financial Reporting and Controllership Sector says "We have heads of ABSCBN confirming their most popular loveteams. Aside from that we have a lot of our brothers and sisters in the showbiz industry, thank you for their support waving their talent fees just to give back to the teachers of this country. We hope this inspires other teachers and help a lot from their families. We fly them in from other provinces, house them here and train them for the duration before the event. We also have different programs that we plan to put out in different cities nationwide so it's really God working through us for the teachers. Volunteers come from PLDT, Smart, other MVP groups and we spend midnights and weekends to be able to do the show, without the help of our partners we wouldn't be able to this. LGU's let us also use their facilities for free, plus the DEP ED also helps us pinpoint which provinces need training help. We are also thankful for the celebrities and performers who gave their time and talent and even invite their friends as this isn't a branded event, just Gabay Guro so everyone is willing to help despite their busy schedules."

Gabay Guro also partnered with several brands so expext a lot of products from them too. The raffle prizes will include a Motorcycle from Motorlandia, 2 Vans from Foton and a 2 House and Lots from Ayala Land so congratulations to the lucky winners.

You're going to hear from the actual scholars, see how they improved their lives using scholarship grants from Gabay Guro. It's a different event as the executives from PLDT and Smart were telling us, they affect them in so many ways. They get hugs, pinch them, just for the small things they thank you. This is very humbling, they do it at MOA Arena for FREE so for those that would be chosen by Dep Ed in the regions and here in Manila, you are blessed!

KUMAGCOW

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PLDT Ups Video Streaming with ROKU Powered TVolution Box

PLDT is definitely not lettin down on making tons of content available in Filipino homes. As we all venture into higher use of data, we all look for quality and HD streaming, but home users want it simple so everyone gets to use it from oldies to the young ones. 

Eric Alberto of PLDT says "As we usher in the new era of digital transformation, we go beyond the digital access by harnessing ROKU, with services that include video on demand, streaming channels to make Filipinos the first in asia to use the ROKU platform. This is the number 1 top up box in the US.  We have also transformed cities with fiber connection, and dsl connection hopefully 6 million by 2020. We are the digital enabler of this nation and we hope our subscribers continue to patronize us as we service the Filipino people."

RenRen Reyes Head of PLDT Home Operations adds "In September last year we put up smart home services and now thanks to ROKU we will be having them in the Filipino home. Now families can stream everything on their TV's, as we partner with content and digital providers. Filipinos love digital content, it's different today as we use separate devices, hopefully to put it in one box plus use the world class internet of PLDT. This starts Family entertainment for Filipinos nationwide. With only one box, you can get Cignal, Netflix, iFlix, Youtube and more channels in the future."

Brandon Amber of Roku says "Roku has pioneered this in 2008, and with more than 14 Million active accounts, we will give you more control, so you can watch everything in your terms. The ROKU powered TVolution Box, Filipinos can enjoy all the content and we know you will enjoy it. There will be different apps you will also be seein in the next months/years. It works on low bandwidth and PLDT has plans which can be used on your requirements."

iFlix GM Sherwin dela Cruz says "We are optimistic that with this partnership with PLDT we are going to have more susbscribers. We are free on the ROKU TVolution box and that would mean we would have more reach. iFlix is enjoyed by PLDT Home subscribers and this is just one avenue where they can get us. You'll have an even greater experience with iFlix!"

Now more than ever, PLDT is bringing you better content, better quality entertainment right in the comforts of your home. It is available tomorrow on pldthome.com so just get it once you get your fiber connection installed. This would be sweet to enjoy with your friends and family. 

KUMAGCOW

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Experiencing a Connected Rizal with Smart

We spent a whole day of fun at Rizal particularly in the Antipolo and nearby areas to experience what the biggest network SMART calls a #ConnectedRizal. They've already done this with several cities like Davao and the best island in the world Boracay just so people could see what it feels to have a fast network with infrastructures that are capable of ideal LTE speeds; they have already upgraded the antennas in this part of the country. Mind you, it takes a ton of man hours to actually do it because you have to manually climb the tower and change several things physically in the antenna plus several items in the site (because they have upgraded the switches and transmitters into external ones) wherein before was required to be air conditioned, but now have external versions of it. 

Mon Isberto, Head of Corp Com at PLDT - ‎Smart Communications, Inc says "As we roll out LTE on our networks, we are also preparing for the not so distant future for 5G. We have to pay attention to your devices, we know you need to get the best out of your network. As soon as we complete the upgrade, it will get better."

If you want to experience it too, visit the Antipolo Church and use the OPEN SIGNAL app and test the speed. You'll be surprised at what you'll get in this part of town.

In just a few minutes, it'll test the networks found in the area and if you're not that sure about what you're seeing, take it to another tourist spot like Hinulugang Taktak!

I didn't know Hinulugang Taktak is open already! There are still parts of it being constructed, but you can have picnic and journey in the meditation area by crossing the hanging bridge. I strongly advise though not to breathe in the smell on the actual falls as it is still a little dirty, but pretty soon they will revive this place!

This is the cell site, the one on the side that comes with every cell site contains very sensitive equipment that requires air conditioning. Some of it were transferred outside because of new technology, they now have external switches and boxes that can work even with high temperatures.

I tried climbing up the antenna, but it was too high for comfort. Imagine what network engineers need to do to in order to change those things on top, they have to do it manually because they need to change the structure, plus the boxes too.

Those boxes (large ones are for the new 700 Mhz which they acquired from San Miguel Corp.) while the small ones are for the 3G signals. This is why it takes time to change all of those things, it's not done in an instant.

Joachim Horn, Chief Technology and Information Advisor at PLDT - ‎Smart Communications, Inc says "We don't want to have a network with that image and we're doing significant improvements in areas such as Rizal. Everyday we have hundreds of people putting up network as we need to constantly upgrade and optimize it. We need to have good coverage so you could have good signal so we are rolling out this effort in different parts of the country. We need about 30 permissions for 1 cell site and a lower frequency penetrates buildings better. But they are building new ones and it's one of the work that we are doing everyday. It covers the signal and we build towers to resolve that. It takes 8 months to 1 year to build one, we have made efforts in Rizal and we also have equipment outage and breaks which our engineers have to fix too. We also have power outages, cable theft and natural calamities, but we still have to build a better network possible. As of now we have 2G, 3G, 4G or LTE and it's the fastest right now."

As for the speed, you be the judge. This was done in the afternoon. I wonder if this would also improve slightly one non peak hours, I'm impressed!

He adds "We also have LTE-A and new technologies coming, so we are improving. If you have a good network, you also need a good smartphone with the best sim that supports the network. If you have good network plus good device, you will get the good experience you deserve. We are one of the few countries that support 700MHz and LTE-A (carrier aggregation). It will be better for the more advanced users. Check bit.ly/700mhzdevices if your phone is included. There are not many countries that have this and we are fixing the network as we are currently updating LTE service across 2,500 cell sites in Manila, hopefully to finish 95% of the Philippines by the end of 2018. We're doing 120 in speed tests in Boracay, 80+ in Davao and about the same in Rizal. You will experience that later. Not only Smart, but PLDT is also connected via Fiber networks. We also have Smart Wifi rolled out on airports, sea ports, bus terminals and more. Also if you don't know, mobile data costs less in the Philippines now. We have addressed that problem including fixed broadband price, it's not a fantasy anymore. We are not alone, we need national and local government to standardize permits and fees, allocate property to build infrastructure and the DICT is very supportive, making it 7 days to process it. We also hope you are ready also for 5G in 2020. In the end we want good service for our customers."

So if you're wondering why it's taking a while to change and improve your network speed, I hope I got you to at least get a glimpse of how it works behind the scenes. If you think your village or community is hampering with the building of these cell sites, make your presence felt and tell them that it's not harmful to have one in your place because it's also been certified by local and international institutions, including DOH. Don't complain about your signals if you are in areas where they put up policies that don't allow these antennas to be placed because in some way, YOU are the problem. It's good news though that agencies and local government units are now supporting network companies to standardize the papers in putting up cell sites, that would really make the process faster because of less red tape. Thanks to SMART for letting us experience a #ConnectedRizal, I hope I can say the same #ConnectedQuezonCity pretty soon, as I know they still have a lot of cell sites to improve in the coming months, and years. The effort alone is something I really appreciate and I hope a lot of people do to. As you may have witnessed, this BIG job is no joke.

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