PLDT And Smart Communications LTE And 3G Service Improves Significantly In Rizal!

PLDT and Smart Communications current 4G and 3G upgrade roll-out is paying off. The province of Rizal got nearly 37% in 3G and 455% increase in LTE speed!

Better and faster internet in Rizal province today!

In the latest internal tests done during the first week of February, Smart's mobile internet coverage and quality of 4G or LTE service in major areas of Rizal has improved, significantly.

How significant? The average download speeds of Smart's LTE service improved nearly five times with a 455% increase to 23.3 Mbps, while the 3G services' average download speed rose by a whopping 37 percent to 3.7 Mbps.

This resulted in increased subscriber data usage in Rizal with network monitoring data showing LTE usage double during that period while 3G usage increased by 22%.

These are clear results from the significant increase of LTE and 3G base stations in the area with LTE base stations now at 18 and the 3G base stations have doubled.

“The Rizal results are very promising since they indicate what Smart is looking to achieve for Metro Manila – where we will make mobile data on LTE and 3G as pervasive as possible, providing fast speeds and great quality to all Smart mobile data users,” said Joachim Horn, chief technology and information advisor for PLDT and Smart.

In the densely populated areas of Antipolo City and the municipality of Tanay, and along major thoroughfares in the province like Marcos Highway, for example, initial tests show that Smart users are already experiencing improvements in the quality of their mobile internet experience.

According to Horn, “these are early results of the rollout, and Smart is still in the process of equipping more base stations in Rizal that use low-frequency bands, to improve the coverage of both LTE and 3G.”

“We are asking for people’s patience and understanding while we are making a lot of changes in our network facilities. These activities are being done during the most inactive hours of the day, and we are putting systems in place to keep to a minimum the impact on our subscribers. In the end, our commitment to all our subscribers is that they will enjoy progressively better mobile data services in the next few months, particularly for those using LTE devices,” added Horn.

Smart recently announced a major network expansion over the next three months, to quadruple its indoor LTE coverage and double its indoor 3G coverage across all 17 cities of Metro Manila, the country’s capital and also the most densely populated area.