Smart gearing up for Christmas demand surge

MANILA, Philippines - The main wireless unit of dominant carrier Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) is gearing up for the strong demand during the Christmas season with its full range of services to subscribers who own the latest and most advanced devices.

Smart Communications Inc. head of marketing Mellissa Limcaoco said in statement that the company’s nationwide mobile network is primed to meet and even exceed the expectations of its most demanding subscribers.

“A significant number of mobile users will upgrade to newer devices during the holidays. As they begin to do more things at the palm of their hands such as chat, surf, and download, they will also expect more from their network,” Limcaoco stressed.

For one, she added that several smartphones and tablets that are capable of Long Term Evolution (LTE) connectivity have already been introduced abroad over the past four weeks.

Most of these devices are expected to be shipped to the Philippines shortly before Christmas. Apple’s much-awaited iPhone5 model is expected to be offered in the country in time for the holiday season.

With handset technology innovations and new service applications mushrooming in the mobile telecommunications space, Smart continues to make its mobile infrastructure at the cutting edge to provide the best services to close to its 60 million subscribers.

Just recently, the telco has completed linking its Metro Manila cell sites to parent company PLDT’s fiber optic network.

“Fiber allows our cell sites to send data faster from the core network to your device, thus translating to an even better mobile experience,” said PLDT smart technology group head Rolando G. Peña.

The PLDT Group announced last September that it has completed a nationwide P67.1-billion network modernization program.

Smart and PLDT’s unmatched network of 54,000 kilometers of fiber optic cabling enables the group to deploy the latest 4G mobile data technologies such as multi-band LTE and High Speed Packet Access Plus (HSPA+) more effectively and with greater efficiency.

Similarly, Smart continues to break new ground in voice call technology as it introduced the country’s first High Definition (HD) voice feature.

In September, Smart was also the first to place the Philippines’ first overseas calls and texts via LTE – a feat which has yet to be duplicated by other local telcos.