Smart mobile revenue up 26% to P25.5 B in 2016

Smart Communications Inc.’s mobile data business continued to grow in 2016.

In a statement, PLDT Inc.’s wireless subsidiary said revenue from mobile data grew 26 percent to P25.5 billion last year from P20.2 billion in 2015.

The increase in revenue was due to the 49 percent growth in mobile data usage to 148,000 terabytes in 2016.

Eric Alberto, PLDT executive vice president and chief revenue officer said the latest figures show the shift to data and digital services continue to gain momentum.

“The steep rise in mobile data traffic highlights the popularity of data usage as well as the huge potential to grow mobile data revenues, particularly mobile internet revenues,” he said.

To support the rapidly increasing data traffic, Smart is accelerating the rollout of Long Term Evolution (LTE) and 3G data networks under the three-year plan submitted by PLDT to the National Telecommunications Commission.

The plan includes the use of low-band frequencies such as the 700 Megahertz (MHz) band it acquired from San Miguel Corp.

The 700 MHz, which provides better indoor penetrability and coverage, is being used to deliver high-speed LTE services.

Smart has completed its network rollout program in Metro Davao and its subscribers, as a result, now enjoy average data download speeds of over 20 Mbps.

The same program is currently being implemented in Metro Manila and Metro Cebu, where subscribers are enjoying similar improvements in data speeds in areas where new LTE facilities have already been installed.

Higher data speeds of 80 to 90 Mbps were also seen in areas where Smart has activated LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) facilities. LTE-A can deliver higher data rates through the combination of two or more frequency bands using carrier aggregation technology.

“Our LTE roll-out highlights the opportunity for people to experience significantly much better internet service by shifting to LTE smartphones, particularly those devices that use the 700 Mhz frequency,” Alberto said.