PLDT Inc. and its wireless arm Smart Communications have provided a market update on the progress of fixed and mobile network deployments in 2021.
The carrier noted that last year it increased its fiber footprint by 73% from 2020, to 743,700km, boosting the total number of homes passed to nearly 14 million (2020: 9.0 million). Moreover, in the period under review the company built out a further 1.7 million fibre ports to increase the total to 5.77 million – the largest number of fibre ports available in the country.
In the mobile sector, meanwhile, Smart reported the deployment of a total of 75,400 base transceiver stations (BTS) as at 31 December 2021, of which around 7,200 were 5G BTS.