According to industry sources, the extra 5MHz of bandwidth given to Smart can accommodate around 20 to 25 million subscribers, or theoretically, about half more than the other players. But according to its competitors, this does not spell an automatic business advantage for Smart.

Atty. Rodolfo Salalima, Globe Telecom's senior vice-president for corporate and regulatory affairs, downplayed Smart's larger frequency bandwidth, noting that it boils down to 'realistically perceiving demand.'

'Right now, we have nearly 30 million mobile subscribers and that number can be readily accommodated by two channels. Not everyone will readily move to 3G,' he said in a separate interview. 'Talking about advantages, there is none.'

Eric Recto, CURE's official representative during the NTC meeting, also agreed that there is no need for the additional channel, although he added that 'something else is afoot and Smart may have something up its sleeve.'

For his part, Smart's Isberto said this allows the company flexibility to 'deploy 3G where most needed.' He noted that the rate of rollout would depend on subscriber take-up.