Smart, moreover, has an infrastructure advantage over the other telcos, as it rides on the largest and highest capacity transport network through the digital fiber optic network (DFON) of its mother company PLDT (Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co.).

Wi-Tribe, meanwhile, is currently available only in Metro Manila, but Jay Reantaso, head of ATL, brand, and digital marketing of Wi-Tribe says nationwide roll-outs "are part of their roadmap."

Currently, Wi-Tribe offers the most competitive broadband packages for WiMax. They have an entry-level P998 plan with 1Mbps speed and a 6GB monthly usage allowance. The higher-level package, the P1998 plan, has 12GB allowance running on 2Mbps.

Wi-Tribe's monthly usage allowances are meant to manage limited network bandwidth. When a user exceeds his or her allowance, the speed is throttled down to 512kbps (first-level), 256kbps (second level) and so on. But users can buy additional bandwidth at a going rate of P200 per gigabyte.