REGULATORS on Wednesday said the new frequencies awarded to Smart Communications Inc. are for temporary use only and cannot be utilized for commercial services.

The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) awarded the cellular firm with 20 megahertz (MHz) within the 2.5 to 2.7-gigahertz (GHz) bandwidth on the condition that Smart will utilize the frequency to support the program of the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Commission in Information and Communications Technology (CICT) in providing all public secondary schools’ Internet connection.  Dubbed as Internet Connectivity Project, the NTC said this is pursuant to the Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan (MTPDP) for 2004-2010 which covers education and youth opportunity.

The strategies include, among others, providing computers in every high school in the country and accelerating knowledge creation and transfer to promote technology-based entrepreneurship.

“The NTC shall monitor Smart Broadband Inc.’s [SBI] compliance with the commitment to support the program with an understanding that in event that Smart fails in its commitment, the commission shall recall the frequencies granted for reassignment to other qualified entities as the NTC deems fit,” said the agency in a statement yesterday.

Smart offers wireless broadband service through its wireless broadband unit SBI under the brand SmartBro. It has long been urging the NTC to be allocated 30 MHz bandwidth in the 2.5-2.7GHz spectrum since 2006 but was awarded recently with only 20MHz.

SBI said in its application that the frequency spectrum it applied for will fully maximize service offerings and provide optimum support to the government’s policies and objectives to make Internet accessible especially to schools and other learning institutions even in the remotest areas of the country.

For its part, Smart said in a text message that “with respect to the WiMax [Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access] frequencies, Smart shall indeed support the DepEd and CICT Internet connectivity programs. The NTC, however, does not state that the frequencies shall be used exclusively for these school programs.”

Smart chief Smart chief wireless advisor Orlando Vea said earlier that the cellular firm will initially launch WiMax service following the award of the broadband wireless access frequencies.

In SBI’s application, it stated that the request of frequencies is indispensible for the company to successfully offer WiMax services especially where alternative DSL (digital subscriber line) solutions are either not available or not economically viable to deploy.

“Thus, Internet access shall become accessible not only in urban areas, but more importantly, in rural areas because WiMax provides wireless data over long distances,” SBI’s application filed with the NTC stated.

“The grant of the frequency band and permit will revolutionize the way people communicate as it will allow them to stay connected with voice, data and video services seamlessly,” it added.

SBI continued to expand as its wireless broadband subscriber base grew 26 percent to reach 689,000 as at end-June, of which 261,000 were on SmartBro’s prepaid service while 428,000 are postpaid subscribers. Smart Bro is today’s most widely available broadband service provider in the country.

WiMax is a telecommunications technology aimed at providing wireless data over long distances in a variety of ways, from point-to-point links to full mobile cellular type access. Among the basic services include broadband Internet, voice over Internet protocol, text messaging, and electronic messaging.

Interactive broadcasting services and web applications can also be accessed through WiMax. Interactive broadcasting services include broadcasting portal, browser, shopping, multimedia service, e-mail and tribes. For web applications, SBI said a subscriber can access wireless video streaming sharing and digital voice communicator on a hand-held radio.

Other phone firms, including rival Globe Telecom Inc., have started offering WiMax services to consumers while some are waiting for their applications for additional frequencies to be approved by the NTC.