Smart to complete rollout of LTE sites

As 2017 comes to a close, PLDT wireless subsidiary Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart) is expected to finish the upgrade of more than 4,200 3G and LTE sites across the country as part of its network modernization effort.

“Our commitment to the National Telecommunications Commission is to meet 90 percent municipality coverage next year for 3G and 4G mobile broadband, and we are well on track to meet this,” said Joachim Horn, chief technology and information advisor for PLDT and Smart.

“We are already at about 89 percent, so we will definitely meet that target early next year,” Horn added.

For the past year, Smart has stepped up its mobile data rollout significantly, particularly for LTE. “This year, we more than doubled the number of sites which are capable of LTE,” said Horn, citing as an example Metro Manila, where about 90 percent of sites already have LTE.

Improvements are already being felt throughout Metro Manila. Recent internal tests in Parañaque, for example, recorded median LTE download speeds of 17.9 Mbps and median upload speeds of 12 Mbps, while median download and upload speeds of 27.6 Mbps and 16.1 Mbps, respectively, were posted in Caloocan. In Taguig, Smart LTE posted median download speeds of 18.6 Mbps, while median upload speeds were at 13.7 Mbps.

Horn also cited “a second wave of upgrades” for Smart’s LTE sites—four-component carrier aggregation, or 4CC. “We already tried this in Boracay, and we have just completed the upgrade of Marikina, where we have upgraded all base stations with 4-carrier aggregation,” said Horn. “The benefit for the customer is much higher capacity, and much higher speeds. So if you go to Marikina, you will easily be able to achieve more than 100 Mbps—on your phone,” he added. /