SINGAPORE -- The Philippines is a unique consumer market for mobile services which other countries are now trying to learn from, an executive from the Ericsson Consumer Lab in Southeast Asia told Asian media here.

The rise of mobile remittances services like Globe G-Cash and Smart Padala are setting examples for other Asian countries that are looking at developing new mobile services for a predominantly prepaid market of mobile phone users.

"A lot of the markets are learning from these [services]," said Vishnu Singh, regional manager for Ericsson Consumer Lab in Southeast Asia, during a briefing conducted in CommunicAsia held at the Singapore Expo.

He said countries like Bangladesh could learn from the Philippines, which is now known to have a large population of overseas workers using mobile services to remit money to relatives back home.

In terms of using mobile broadband services which allow users to connect handheld devices or laptops to a high-speed wireless mobile network, Singh said that the Philippines and other emerging markets are still dealing with issues of increasing access among the population.

Singh said mobile broadband services are becoming a reality due to the availability of high-speed mobile networks, low-cost laptops, fixed rates, and powerful handsets that come with better browsing technology.

With a predominantly prepaid market of mobile phone subscribers, Singh acknowledged that the Philippines could explore prepaid mobile broadband services as a means to control cost.

"As a consumer, I don't want any surprises. Prepaid services is a cost control," he added.

Local wireless service provider Smart Communications is among the Philippine telcos providing prepaid mobile broadband services to consumers at fixed rates.