Smart Communications, a subsidiary of PLDT wireless has rolled out Long Term Evolution(LTE) across the Palawan province (Philippines) to provide enhanced mobile experience to its customers.
Starting with the capital city Puerto Princesa, Smart plans to increase the number of LTE sites in Palawan where initial internal tests in areas including the Puerto Princesa airport and Honda Bay, showed LTE download speeds of between 12 to 60 Mbps.
“With our ramped-up rollout across Palawan, travelers from all over can now enjoy world-class connectivity in one of the country’s premier tourist destinations,” said Mario G. Tamayo, Senior Vice President for Network Planning and Engineering for PLDT and Smart.
“This is part of Smart’s broader effort to deliver world-class internet service to every corner of the country. Now that our sites are up in areas like Puerto Princesa, Basco, Sagada and Sarangani, we will be able to serve our customers better, wherever they may be,” Tamayo added.
According to Smart, Puerto Princesa is just one of many high-traffic areas where Smart has already deployed LTE. Recently, Smart also fired up LTE in the Philippines’ northernmost province of Batanes, bringing better mobile data experience to tourists and residents traveling through the picturesque islands.
Smart installed more than 1,300 LTE base stations, totalling to more than 10,000 in the Q1 of 2018, with further plans to double the number of LTE base stations on its network to about 17,700 and raise the number of LTE-equipped cell sites to 6,800.
To fully avail the benefits of the enhanced Smart LTE network, customers are encouraged to upgrade to an LTE-capable smartphone and an LTE SIM.
Smart Communications is one of the top mobile service providers in the Philippines, serving approximately 95 percent (as of June 2017) of the country’s cities and municipalities with its combined 2G, 3G, and 4G LTE network, providing mobile communications services, high-speed internet connectivity, and access to digital services and content to over 58.7 million Filipinos.