has launched its cyberzone with Philcom as its wi-fi provider.
SM regional manager for Mindanao Debby A. Go, who led the switch on ceremonies for the mall’s wifi access on October 31, 2009 said the move was to provide people in Mindanao with free access to internet.
“It will be SM’s greatest feature as it launched its free access wi-fi zone anywhere inside the mall. SM mall in Cagayan de Oro City is also a wi-fi zone,” Go said.
SM City Davao was SM’s 24th mall which provides free access to internet.
Joanne A. Abrogar, SM Supermall cyberzone operations manager, said five more malls will be equipped with wi-fi access before end of 2009.
She said by the first quarter of 2010, all SM’s 36 malls around the country would have internet access, one of the value-added services within SM malls with Philcom as their wifi provider.
Meanwhile, Jennifer D. Silan, head of Philcom Sales and Marketing, said that with six megabyte per second, the wi-fi access at SM could allow 1,500 users simultaneously.
Both Abrogar and Silan said they carefully studied the access, including the ban on restricted sites while people access the connection within SM.
Abrogar said that as part of SM’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) it paid particular attention of banning strictly restricted sites.
She said SM had set up a monitoring system even as she encouraged the public to report to SM management any suspicious sites being used.
She said this was a free access and they encouraged the cooperation of everyone in order to maintain continuous connectivity.
Bert Barriga, vice president of Davao Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Council said that the move of SM to align with ICT sector was a milestone and with that in itself was a manifestation that SM was the key to push for community development.
He said with a bandwidth that runs faster, this is already an advantage and we need to capitalize on this by using it to good use.
He said this was also an opportune time as Davao was now a global player, considering that many business process outsourcing companies eyed the city as expansion area.
Part of the launch activity was a photo blogging seminar workshop by Davao’s first female web designer and free lance journalist Jojie Alcantara.
Alcantara said visuals were important in any website but with everybody now into blogging, it was also important that bloggers know some journalism ethics.
“Other than sharing with the participants techniques on photo blogging it is best for them to know that there are ethics to follow because ethics in the formal media also applies in the internet,” she said.
She said this is part of my advocacy to let people understand and learn some media ethics.
Russel D. Alaba, group brand manager for SM Visayas and Mindanao and brand manager Jay J. Mandulara also graced the cyberzone launching.
Posted by Gerard Tan on November 18, 2009 at 6:23 am
Tried using the Wifi at SM Davao. Very good indeed! I’m really happy that I can now hang at my favorite coffee shop and utilize this free service that SM provides. Is this available for all SM malls or is it just Davao?
Posted by prixbanzon on November 18, 2009 at 7:51 am
Hi Gerard that’s good for us Dabawenyos … we also write our stories there immediately after we attend Kapehan sa Dabaw every Monday and after our bi-monthly Davao Business Forum … thanks for dropping by this site and big thanks to SM too for sharing the wifi services to us. Yes it is available in all SM malls but SM said by first quarter of 2010 all the 36 malls will have internet connections. Right now only 24 malls are with connections but 5 will be completed by end of 2009 making a total of 29 malls this year to be with access to internet.