Smart Philippines Upgrades Network, Bullish on Cloud-based Services

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By Lawrence Agcaoili (The Philippine Star)

MANILA, Philippines - Smart Communications Inc., a unit of dominant carrier PLDT, expects a spike in the usage of “cloud-based” services such as online storage, backup and file sharing applications in the Philippines as the company undertakes P67.1-billion network upgrade.

Lloyd Manaloto, head of Smart Broadband Internet and Data Services, said the rise in the usage of cloud services in the country would be in line with the introduction of super-fast wireless technologies such as Long Term Evolution (LTE).

Manaloto pointed out that cloud services are quickly gaining mainstream acceptance around the world as major mobile operating systems such as Android, iOS and Windows offer cloud-based services to their users.

Apple, for example, has integrated its proprietary iCloud backup technology to all devices running the latest versions of its OS. The same goes with Android with Google Drive and Windows with Microsoft SkyDrive.