PLDT, Smart accelerate fixed wireless network expansion

PLDT Inc. and wireless subsidiary Smart Communications Inc. have accelerated the rollout of the group’s fixed and wireless networks as they came close in achieving their 2018 capacity rollout targets by just the first half.

As of end-June, Smart has installed more than 3,900 Long Term Evolution (LTE) base stations to improve its LTE coverage by increasing the total count by 45 percent to over 12,600.

Aside from rolling out LTE and LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) across the country’s main urban hub Metro Manila, Smart has also fired up LTE and LTE-A as far north as Batanes, Sagada and Cagayan, as well as in Palawan, Sorsogon, Cebu, Bohol, Leyte, Davao and Sarangani.

With the rollout, Smart said it is on track to fulfill its commitment to the National Telecommunications Commission to provide high-speed wireless data services in over 90 percent of the country’s cities and municipalities by the end of 2018.

PLDT has likewise increased the coverage of its fiber-power fixed broadband network in the first half to 5.07 million homes passed and boosted its capacity to 1.86 million ports, nearing its full-year target of 2.2 million ports.

Expansion of PLDT’s fiber optic transmission and distribution network also continued, with the telco giant increasing its fiber footprint to 204,000 kilometers in the first half, rolling out over 29,000 kilometers of fiber cable further increasing the reach, capacity and resiliency of PLDT’s fiber network.

“The beneficial impact of these network roll-out efforts has been enhanced by the tighter coordination between our business and network organizations, and, between the fixed and mobile engineering teams. As a result, we are prioritizing the roll-out in areas where there are ready customers. Also, our deployment of network facilities – particularly fiber – more efficiently boost the expansion efforts of both our fixed and mobile network,” PLDT and Smart senior vice president for network planning and engineering Mario Tamayo said.

PLDT said data/broadband and digital services continued to be the main growth drivers for all three business segments-Home, Individual Wireless, and Enterprise--accounting for P39.6 billion in revenues in the first half.

“We have crossed an important threshold now that our data and digital services generate more than half of our total service revenues. Moving forward, our task is to accelerate our digital pivot by pursuing whenever possible converged digital initiatives across our business segments – Home, Individual Wireless, and Enterprise,” PLDT executive vice president and chief revenue officer Ernesto Alberto said.

The network expansion and modernization efforts are supported by PLDT’s capital expenditures program for which P58 billion has been earmarked for this year.

Some P31.5 billion of this amount has been allocated for the wireless network and P26.5 billion for the fixed line network.