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PLDT’s mobile arm plans to activate 360 cell sites in 2016.
Smart Communications on Thursday followed in the footsteps of rival Philippine telco Globe by firing up its first three 700-MHz LTE base stations.
Individually, the sites have reached peak connection speeds of 101 Mbps. At one of the sites though, the operator used carrier aggregation (CA) to combine its 700-MHz spectrum with its 1800-MHz spectrum, achieving a peak speed of 222 Mbps.
"Combined with our other frequency bands, LTE on 700 MHz will help expand the coverage and enhance the capacity of our data network at a faster pace," said Joachim Horn, chief technology and information officer of Smart and its parent company PLDT.
Smart said it plans to switch on 360 700-MHz sites this year, initially in the metro areas of Cebu, Davao and the capital Manila.
"The other part of our strategy for the rapid deployment of LTE is to push the availability of more affordable LTE smartphones, pocket WiFis, and tablets using 700 MHz," Horn said. "This combination of advanced network, technology, and devices will enable us to provide the best digital experience to our customers across the country."
The announcement comes a little over a week after PLDT agreed to acquire 50% of San Miguel Corporation’s (SMC’s) telco assets. The other 50% was acquired by Globe Telecom. Together, they agreed to pay 52.85 billion pesos (€1.02 billion). SMC had planned to launch mobile services in the Philippines, but this fell through after it failed to establish a mobile joint venture with Australia’s Telstra.
As well as 700-MHz spectrum, PLDT also acquired 850-MHz, 2.5-GHz and 3.5-GHz frequencies.
PLDT has upped its network expansion budget by US$100 million (€88.39 million) in order to utilise the new airwaves.
Globe meanwhile announced on Tuesday that its first 700-MHz site went live over the weekend.
