PLDT wireless subsidiary Smart Communications, Inc. is ramping up its network upgrades across the country, with improvements in LTE speeds seen in Rizal, southern Metro Manila, and Cebu. Internal tests conducted this month showed that average download speeds of 16.3 Mbps and average upload speeds of 13.4 Mbps on Smart’s LTE service have been recorded in the southern Metro Manila cities of Las Piñas, Taguig, Parañaque and Muntinlupa, which hosts about a fifth of Metro Manila’s population of over 12 million.
“LTE provides the best mobile data experience to subscribers and significantly boosts the speed, quality and reliability of our data service,” said Joachim Horn, chief technology and information advisor for PLDT and Smart.
“Through this LTE rollout, we are also laying the foundation for further improvements in our service, such as LTE-Advanced with Carrier Aggregation, in preparation for the coming of 5G in 2020.”
Carrier aggregation refers to the capability of LTE-A to provide subscribers with access to the combined capacity of two or more frequency bands, resulting in ultra-fast speeds of more than 100 Mbps for users with LTE-A capable smartphones.
Smart first rolled out its LTE-A service in April 2016 in Boracay in preparation for the rise of bandwidth-heavy services such as video streaming and gaming.
Results of the continuing network upgrade can also be felt in nearby Rizal province, where average LTE download speeds have improved to 24.2 Mbps, while average LTE upload speeds have also gone up to 16.3 Mbps.
The ongoing network expansion is also bearing fruit in other parts of the country.
In Metro Cebu, average download speeds on Smart’s LTE service are now at 20.9 Mbps, while average LTE upload speeds are at 15.5 Mbps, in the midst of ongoing network upgrades in the Visayas’ premier urban hub.
Users in Boracay and Metro Davao have also already reported improved quality of LTE services. Smart already completed its network overhaul program in these areas last year.
Smart has targeted to expand its LTE coverage to include a total of 785 municipalities by the end of 2017, or about half of the target indicated in the three-year network roll-out plan that PLDT submitted to the National Telecommunications Commission last year, where it said that Smart is focusing on accelerating its LTE deployment and will make it progressively available to users in 1,551 cities and municipalities across the country by the end of 2018.
This year, Smart targets to roll-out 2,165 sites with LTE in low spectrum bands and 3,568 sites in high spectrum bands.
The backbone of the PLDT group’s digital pivot, this comprehensive network modernization and expansion program features re-equipping cell sites to use low-frequency bands such as 700 MHz and 850 MHz to improve LTE and 3G services.
Tags: Full speed ahead for Smart’s nationwide LTE roll out, LTE, Manila, Manila Bulletin, manila news, news today, PLDT, Smart Communications Inc.
Source: http://technology.mb.com.ph/2017/04/03/full-speed-ahead-for-smarts-nationwide-lte-roll-out/