{"id":1569,"date":"2013-08-26T10:29:57","date_gmt":"2013-08-26T02:29:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/?p=1569"},"modified":"2013-08-26T10:29:57","modified_gmt":"2013-08-26T02:29:57","slug":"crowdsourced-app-helps-ph-drivers-navigate-traffic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/2013\/08\/26\/crowdsourced-app-helps-ph-drivers-navigate-traffic\/","title":{"rendered":"Crowdsourced app helps PH drivers navigate traffic"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Waze\"<\/a>Drivers in the Philippines can now outsmart traffic.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart), Digitel Mobile Philippines, Inc. (Digitel) through its mobile brand Sun Cellular (Sun), and Smart subsidiary Voyager Innovations, Inc. (Voyager) announced a strategic partnership with Waze (waze.com) to expand local awareness of the crowdsourced navigation app and help Philippines drivers save time on every drive.<\/p>\n

The wireless services companies, part of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT), will be the first Philippine mobile operator partners of the social navigation pioneer.<\/p>\n

Waze combines GPS navigation technology with social networking, enabling users to swiftly identify the fastest and most efficient map routes. Millions of Waze drivers enable the service to adjust its reports in real time, based on constantly changing road conditions such as heavy traffic or accidents.<\/p>\n

Through this partnership, the companies will encourage further expansion of Waze usage in the Philippines through a marketing, promotion and distribution agreement to Smart and Sun\u2019s more than 73.4 million subscribers.<\/p>\n

In addition to special promotions, Smart and Sun will pre-install the Waze application on smartphones bundled under its commercial postpaid and prepaid offerings. The Waze Philippines map will display Smart- and Sun-branded retail pins to help extend both companies\u2019 customer service.<\/p>\n

Voyager will serve as a critical partner, working with Waze for technology integration and exchange of map data for both Smart and Sun.<\/p>\n

\u201cWaze is one of the most innovative and fast-rising mobile apps in the world and we\u2019re proud to make this available to our subscribers. With our fast-growing smartphone subscriber base, Waze is an exciting addition to the growing number of Smart and Sun\u2019s leading global mobile apps partners,\u201d said Orlando B. Vea, Chief Wireless Advisor, Smartand president of Digitel.<\/p>\n

\u201cWaze provides real-time and community-based information to make navigating traffic easier, allowing users to better make use of their time to live more. It is especially useful in the high-traffic areas of the country\u2019s major cities and has a growing user base in the Philippines. This partnership is mutually beneficial to all parties \u2013 with our subscribers enjoying a world-class mobile app and with Waze having access to the biggest share of the Philippine mobile services market.\u201d said Charles A. Lim, EVP and Head, Consumer Wireless Business Group for Smart and Sun.<\/p>\n

\u201cVoyager is bringing Waze, a leading crowd-sourced mapping and traffic information app experience to the Philippines. By downloading the app, users can gain access to a rich navigation experience thru the mobile phone – no need for another gadget.\u00a0 It is just the beginning– we are bringing more of these innovative services to enrich everyday life,\u201d said Jose Benjamin S. Fernandez, Chief Operating Officer, Voyager.<\/p>\n

Early this year, Waze was recognized as Best Overall App at the Global Mobile Awards 2013 in Barcelona, Spain. With the Philippines as one of the fast-growing smartphone markets in Southeast Asia, mobile apps and data usage is on the rise. This process is further enabled by the availability of affordable mobile Internet rates and deployment of supercharged networks of Smart and Sun LTE (long-term evolution), the fastest available wireless connectivity to date.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart), Digitel Mobile Philippines, Inc. (Digitel) through its mobile brand Sun Cellular (Sun), and Smart subsidiary Voyager Innovations, Inc. (Voyager) announced a strategic partnership with Waze (waze.com) to expand local awareness of the crowdsourced navigation app and help Philippines drivers save time on every drive. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":1570,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,10,9,19],"tags":[524,523,343,158,525,526],"class_list":["post-1569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-android","category-ios","category-apps","category-headlines","tag-digitel-mobile-philippines","tag-mobile-application","tag-smart-communications","tag-sun-cellular","tag-voyager-innovations","tag-waze"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1569\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}