Smart fires up GSM switch in North Luzon

Smart Communications, Inc. announced yesterday that it has fired up it first GSM switch in Northern Luzon as part of its P21-billion network expansion program for this year.

Located at the PLDT facilities in San Fernando, La Union (SFLU), the new facility has a total capacity of 350,000 subscribers. It serves the provinces of La Union, Cagayan, Isabela, Quirino, Nueva Vizcaya, Ifugao and Baguio. By yearend, traffic from Ilocos Sur and Ilocos Norte, and Benguet being currently routed to Smart’s Pampanga switch will be processed by the SFLU switch.

This GSM switch is the second switch fired up by the Smart in a month. Smart recently announced the operations of its Cagayan de Oro GSM switch for Mindanao.

"The full operation of Smart’s SFLU GSM switch will assist efforts of local government to build up the North Luzon Growth Quadrangle," Napoleon L. Nazareno, Smart president and CEO, said. The North Luzon Growth Quadrangle includes the 15 provinces in Ilocos Region (Region I), Cagayan Valley (Region 2), and the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR).

The San Fernando, La Union GSM switch is a Nokia DX200i — the latest in the Nokia family of GSM mobile switching centers (MSC) with advanced features that allow Smart to support its wide range of mobile value-added services which include mobile banking, information on-demand, and access to the wireless Internet.

"This is part of Smart’s efforts in enhancing network quality and coverage for the benefit of our subscribers," according to Rolando G. Peña, Smart network services division head.

Mobile switches are computers that act as the heart of a cellular network. When a cellular call is made, the signal from the cellular phone is sent to the nearest base transreceiver station. It is then received by the base station controller which sends the signal to the mobile switch which then routes the call to the proper party.

Thus, additional capacity mobile switches make the system management of call and text traffic more efficient, clearer and faster.

Designated as the regional administrative center for the Ilocos region, La Union’s location in the Northern Luzon Growth Quadrangle makes it a very good investment area for agro-industrial activities. Its accessibility to international sea lanes and air routes makes it a place for cross-border investment ventures.

To support regional initiatives, Smart has been investing in additional telecommunications facilities in the area. The company recently signed a lease with the John Hay Poro Point Development Corp. for the installation of a cellsite in the former Wallace Air Force Base which is now being developed as a special economic and Freeport zone.

Total subscribers using Smart’s GSM network now approximate five million. As of end June 2001, Smart’s GSM network had a switching capacity for nearly six million subscribers. The network can process up to 170 million messages a day on an in-out basis, almost double the text messaging capacity, from year-end 2000 figures.

To handle the increase in voice and text traffic volume, the company has accelerated its GSM switch and base station rollout during the first semester of the year. It signed a $200-million GSM expansion program with Nokia last month which targets to increase its subscriber capacity to 10 million by next year.