Archive for April, 2008

Smart Offers Flat Rate for Roaming Mobile Internet Service

Smart postpaid roamers can now enjoy unlimited use of roaming mobile Internet service, all for a flat rate of just US$10 a day.

The pay-per-day roaming GPRS flat rate is made possible under a strategic agreement among member-operators of the Conexus Mobile Alliance, one of the largest mobile alliances in Asia with a combined customer base of around 170 million mobile subscribers.

Smart Communications, Inc. (SMART) is one of seven member-operators of the Conexus Mobile Alliance that are involved in the innovative mobile date roaming tariff plan. The others are Far EasTone Telecommunications Co., Ltd. In Taiwan, Hutchison Telecommunications (Hong Kong) Limited in Hong Kong, KT Freetel Co., Ltd. South Korea, NTT DoCoMo, Inc. in Japan and StarHub Ltd., in Singapore.

Once in these Asian countries, SMART postpaid roamers simply have to log on to the network of participating Conexus Mobile Alliance members to automatically enjoy the flat rate of US$10 per day. The rate automatically applies for daily data usage of more than two megabytes.

To ensure that they stay logged on to Conexus members when they are roaming, SMART subscribers must access network settings on their mobile phone and manually select Conexus member network. The pay-per-day flat rate data roaming mobile tariff plan is a more customer-friendly way of data charging and no longer gives our customers a ‘bill shock’ at the end of the month.

For a typical HSDPA session, the consumption of mobile data can be in the tens of megabytes, so the conventional way of charging per kilobyte usage can be very costly, especially for postpaid roamers who fail to keep track of how much peso-value service has been consumed. The unlimited-per-day roaming mobile internet rate gives Smart subscribers assurance that they will be charged only US$10 for the day, no matter how many kilobytes they consume.

As a member of the Alliance, SMART also extends to its subscribers the privileges of SIM Card Replacement and Travelling Connect. With Service Centers for SIM Card Replacement set up in members’ countries and cities, corporate users with company-registered mobile lines of alliance members will be able to get a new and activated SIM card if they lose their original ones in member’s place.

Conexus Mobile Alliance has also established partnership with Travelling Connect, a leading global provider of loyalty management service to the telecommunications industry. Mobile subscribers from participating member operators can earn mile of points when traveling abroad and making mobile phone calls on members’ network to gain awards from airlines and hotels which are partner companies of Travelling Connect.

Smart is the first and only telco in the Philippines that can offer an ‘all-you-can-use-per-day’ roaming mobile Internet service. This offering allows its postpaid roamers to surf the Internet, check their emails and transmit data without worrying about counting data usage as they would on a per kilobyte or volume-based charging scheme.

Expanded Students Jobs Plan a Great Help for Filipino Youth

The Senate committees on labor, employment and human resources development and on finance have jointly endorsed a bill to expand an educational financing program so that a greater number of underprivileged high school and college students may benefit from it.

The two committees recommended for floor debate and approval Senate Bill 2166, which seeks to reinforce the Special Program for the Employment of Students (SPES), through reforms that would make the scheme more responsive to prevailing conditions.

The measure is a unified version of five bills introduced separately by Senators Loren Legarda, Jinggoy Estrada, Ramon Revilla, Jr., Edgardo Angara and Manuel Lapid.

Mandated by Republic Act 7323, the SPES helps students 15 to 25 years old support themselves through their gainful employment in private firms and public offices during summer and Christmas breaks.

Under the expanded SPES, students in tertiary, vocational or technological schools may be employed at any time of the year, not just during the summer or Christmas breaks.

However, high school students may be engaged under the SPES only during the summer and Christmas vacations.

Also under the enlarged SPES, firms with at least 15 regular workers may hire qualified students. At present, only firms with a minimum of 50 regular employees may engage youths under the program.

Since 1993, the SPES has benefited an average of 80,000 student every year. And once the bill is enacted, the number of beneficiaries would increase considerably.

Besides allowing more firms to hire students, the SPES budget will be augmented automatically by 20 percent every year. The impoundment of fund is also banned to insulate the program from nasty partisan politics.

There is a growing number of youths desperately looking for work so that they will have enough to pay for their schooling. According to Legarda, chair of the Senate committee on economic affairs, Filipinos aged 15 to 24 now comprise more than half of 2.2 million members of the labor force that are totally jobless.

Under the SPES, fully-employed students get a salary not lower than the lawful minimum wage. Employers pay 60 percent of the wage in cash. While the government covers the rest in education vouchers that may be used to pay for tuition and books.

The bill also relaxes the annual family income ceiling for aspirants to qualify for jobs, and penalizes schools and bookstores that refuse to honor the government-issued education vouchers.

Summer Special Promotional Rate for Medical Practitioners

Doctors, nurses, emergency responders, therapist and other health workers can enhance their knowledge, skills, career opportunities, and build credentials by attending US-accredited International Conference of Life Saving Measures and Continuing Education Course.

In the Philippines, medical practitioners can get these through the Global American Medical, Inc., a global continuing education provider of America, Inc. (Phils.). The center which is also an accredited provider of continuing education by the Florida Board of Nursing (FBON 50-5618) and the California Board of Nursing (CEP 14939), and a training center for the American Heart Association, is now offering summer special promotional rate beginning April up to June on Basic Life Support (BLS)/CPR Course and Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) Course.

For Basic Life Support (BLS)/CPR Course (initial or renewal), the promotional price is down to Php 2,500 from the original price of Php 4,000. The course is scheduled on May 29, 2008 and June 23, 2008. To avail of the promotional price, registration must be completed on or before the 15^th of the month of May and June.

For Advanced Cardiac Support (ACLS) the initial course with the promo is down to Php 6,500 from the original price of Php 9,000. The course is scheduled on May 29-30 and June 24-25, 2008.

For ACLS renewal course, the fee is down to Php 6,000 from the original price of Php 6,500. The course is scheduled on May 30 and June 25, 2008. Interested practitioners must show current American Heart Associations’ ACLS card to avail of renewal course rate.

The Global American Medical, Inc. also offers Physical Assessment Course, Prevention of Medication Error Course, Intravenous Therapy/Phlebotomy Course, 12 Lead ECG Interpretation Course, HIV/OSHA/Blood Borne Pathogen Course and Domestic Violence Course. GAMI courses are offered every month.

To register, feel free to contact:

Global American Medical, Inc.

27^th Floor Tower 2, The Enterprise Center

6766 Ayala Avenue cor. Paseo de Roxas, Makati City

Telephone Numbers: (02) 849-3546; (02) 649-3970

Mobile: 0928-7813096

US Toll Free No.: 1-800-966-0251

US Tel. No.: 1-954-450-1190

Email: globalmedical@bellsouth.net

Website: www.globalamericanmedical.com