Smart beefs up the nationwide rollout of 5G-ready LTE network
PLDT's wireless arm Smart today shared an update regarding its nationwide network rollout.
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| File photo: Smart 5G SM Megamall Speedtest |
Smart network upgrade update
The local telco giant said that it continues to beef up the capacity and expand the reach as well as the resiliency of its 5G-ready Long Term Evolution (LTE) network to meet the surging demand for data services all over the Philippines.
Smart shared that the rollout also serves the purpose of laying the groundwork for 5G deployment.
For the first half of 2020, Smart increased its 4G LTE base stations by 10 percent versus end-2019. The company also increased the capacity of its network by reallocating its assigned 1800 MHz frequency from 2G to 4G LTE.
The result? 3,785 Smart base stations are now providing additional capacity for its LTE network.
To date, Smart claimed that its LTE service is available in 91 percent of the country's municipalities serving 94 percent of the population.
Smart reported that the network upgrades enabled the company to support the 36 percent spike in mobile data usage for the first 6 months of the year amid the community quarantines.
Mobile traffic has reached 1.3 Exabytes in the first half of the year which is more than double the traffic during the same period last year.
This year, Smart is also set to increase the number of its LTE sites and availability across municipalities.
Among the provides with exisiting sites upgraded to LTE include Northern and Central Luzon provinces like Quirino and Aurora, Southern Luzon provinces like Camarines Sur, Camarines Norte, Albay and Sorsogon, Visayas provinces like Capiz, Guimaras, and Siquijor, and Mindanao provinces like Misamis Occidental, Agusan del Norte, and Agusan del Sur, to name a few.
This is part of our commitment to keep improving our customers' experience on our network, wherever in the country they may be, said PLDT-Smart Senior Vice President for Network Planning and Engineering Mario G. Tamayo.
Smart has also deployed 4G/LTE in municipalities in remote areas of Ifugao, Mindoro, Northern Samar, and Sulu, and is ramping up its rollout in Cagayan and Isabela this year.
Smart's ongoing capacity expansion covering its existing sites nationwide increased the number of LTE base stations by as much as 49 percent in Southern Luzon.
Smart’s ongoing capacity expansion activities covering its existing sites nationwide have likewise increased the number of LTE base stations by as much as 49% in Southern Luzon, for example.
Smart's mobile network is supported by PLDT's fiber infrastructure, which provides high-capacity links to LTE base stations and is now nearly 360,000 kilometers nationwide.
For 5G, smart said that the service will be rolled out to more targeted areas in Metro Manila this year and will be extended to urban centers next year.
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