Smart cites internet upgrade in Rizal

MANILA, Philippines - Smart Communications Inc. has started to see gains in the ongoing network rollout around Metro Manila, citing improvements in download speeds as well as usage of Long Term Evolution (LTE) and 3G services in the province of Rizal.

Based on internal tests conducted in the first two weeks of February, Smart said in a statement, average download speeds of its LTE service jumped 455 percent to 23.3 Mbps, while the average download speed of its 3G service went up 37 percent to 3.7 Mbps.

Subscriber data usage has also increased in Rizal.

In particular, usage on LTE doubled during the first two weeks of February, while data usage on 3G has climbed 22 percent.

Smart attributed the improvements to the significant increase in the number of LTE and 3G base stations in Rizal.

Smart’s LTE base stations grew 18 times, while 3G base stations more than doubled.

“The Rizal results are very promising since they indicate what Smart is looking to achieve for Metro Manila – where we will make mobile data on LTE and 3G as pervasive as possible, providing fast speeds and great quality to all Smart mobile data users,” Joachim Horn, chief technology and information advisor for PLDT Inc. and Smart said.

Smart is currently working on improving LTE and 3G services through upgrades of base stations in Rizal.

“We are asking for people’s patience and understanding while we are making a lot of changes in our network facilities.  These activities are being done during the most inactive hours of the day, and we are putting systems in place to keep to a minimum the impact on our subscribers,” he said.