Smart rolls out LTE in Batanes

PLDT Inc.’s wireless unit Smart Communications Inc. has rolled out its Long Term Evolution (LTE) service in Batanes to bring improved mobile data experience for tourists and residents.

“Smart is now the first operator to have LTE in the country’s northernmost province. This is part of Smart’s commitment to bring mobile internet to more than 90 percent of the country’s municipalities by the end of this year,” Mario Tamayo, PLDT and Smart senior vice president for network planning and engineering said in a statement.

With the availability of Smart LTE in Batanes, he said tourists and residents can now enjoy better mobile data experience.

Batanes, home to 17,000 Filipinos, receives around 4,000 tourists a month.

“Covering Ba– tanes with LTE was a major challenge. To connect this province, we had to use multiple microwave hops, including the longest single microwave hop in the country at 128 kilometers,” Tamayo said.

Due to the province’s rugged and mountainous terrain, Smart had to deploy special heavy equipment to transport and install the cell sites.

In addition to LTE, Smart has also activated LTEAdvanced (LTE-A) in the provincial capital of Basco.

Currently, LTE-A is the fastest commercially available wireless technology for mobile data in the country.

Amid growing use of mobile data services, Smart is committed to accelerate the deployment of LTE-A and carrier aggregation (CA) technology to more areas of the country.

Through CA, a feature of LTE-A, two or more radio frequency bands are combined to deliver bigger bandwidth and much faster data speeds.

Earlier, Smart rolled out CA in other tourist destinations such as Baguio, Sagada, Panglao, Dumaguete, Puerto Princesa, Daanbantayan and Dapitan.