Smart aims for more LTE coverage by 2018

MANILA, Philippines - PLDT Inc.’s wireless arm is aiming to have Long Term Evolution (LTE) coverage in 95 percent of the country by the end of 2018, based on a three-year plan submitted to the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC).

Under the plan submitted to the NTC on Friday, Smart Communications Inc. would expandi its LTE coverage by utilizing its frequencies and those it gained access to following PLDT’s acquisition of half of the telecommunications business of San Miguel Corp. (SMC). The other half was bought by Globe Telecom Inc.

The three-year network rollout plan was submitted by PLDT to comply with one of the conditions imposed by the NTC in approving the frequency co-use arrangement between Smart and SMC’s Bell Telecommunication Philippines Inc.

“We are accelerating our LTE deployment because this will enable us to deliver faster, more reliable and affordable internet services throughout the country,” said Joachim Horn, chief technology and information advisor at PLDT and Smart.

LTE is currently the fastest wireless data service commercially available.

While the bulk of smartphone users in the country are using 3G handsets, the use of LTE devices is growing fast as the number of available LTE-capable models are increasing and becoming more affordable.

Almost 50 percent of roughly 70 million Smart, TNT and Sun subscribers are using smartphones.

Under the three-year rollout plan, Smart will deploy LTE in key cities and major municipalities to cover a total of 1,551 cities and municipalities by the end of 2018.

For this year, Smart has started the use of the 700 megahertz (MHz) band previously assigned to SMC by firing up eight LTE cell sites, with five located in Davao City, and one each in Tanay in Rizal, Bacoor in Cavite and Manggahan area in Pasig City.

Smart intends to use the 700 MHz band which has better indoor coverage compared to other frequencies, in a total of 360 cell sites in Metro Manila, Metro Cebu, and Metro Davao this year.

By using all its frequencies, Smart expects to have LTE coverage in 40 percent of over 1,000 cities and municipalities by year-end.

PLDT has hiked its capital expenditures to P48 billion from an initial P43 billion for this year to include the additional $100 million budget allocation to be used for new frequencies from SMC.

Apart from LTE network deployment, Horn said Smart is also working with device manufacturers so more medium- to low-priced 4G or LTE handsets, tablets, and pocket WiFis could be made available in the market.

To prepare for the expected surge in data and next generation technologies, deployment of the next stage development of LTE called LTE-Advanced or 4.5G also forms part of the thee-year plan submitted by PLDT.