Smart: 5G to boost mobile gaming, e-sports

Manila, Philippines — PLDT wireless arm Smart Communications Inc. is set to further advance the e-sports market in the country through 5G technology.

Smart sees the super high-speed mobile internet that 5G can deliver as beneficial to mobile gamers and the country’s growing e-sports market.

“We have always been a staunch supporter of this growing industry, and part of this commitment is making the best of our technologies available for the advancement of e-sports in the country,” PLDT chief revenue officer and Smart president and CEO Alfredo Panlilio said.

Smart said it is set to deploy indoor 5G coverage to support the training grounds of various e-sports teams under The Nationals, the country’s first and only franchise-based e-sports league.

“5G is very promising and I am very excited to know that it will be promising for The Nationals. The athletes would surely love the lower latency which would allow them to maximize their response times and teams will benefit from other use cases like instant download of replays and access of VODs for their reviews and strategy phases,” said Darren Vitug, commissioner of The Nationals.

5G has the capability to deliver extremely high speeds coupled with lower latency — two factors important in delivering an enhanced gaming experience.

Smart said lower latency delivered by its current 5G network is ideal for real-time AR/VR and game applications.

With the deployment of 5G standalone in the future, Smart said this performance will further be enhanced with ultra-reliable low-latency communication, which is another key feature of 5G.

Smart fired up the country’s first 5G base stations in Makati and Pampanga in 2018, transforming Makati City and Clark Freeport Zone into the country’s first Smart 5G Cities.

Last year, Araneta City became the country’s first Smart 5G Lifestyle Hub and 5G-enabled shopping mall as it hosted the country’s first 5G indoor deployment.

PLDT and Smart have also launched 5G at the Ateneo de Manila University, transforming it into the first Smart 5G campus and enabling the university’s students and tech experts to co-develop practical and relevant 5G solutions.

PLDT has also partnered with Cisco to transform PLDT’s IP transport infrastructure into a fully automated, software-defined 5G-ready IP transport network.

Armed with both fixed and wireless infrastructure powered by the country’s most extensive fiber network now at over 307,000 kilometers, Smart said it is best positioned to deploy 5G in the country.

PLDT chairman and CEO Manuel V. Pangilinan said earlier that the company is eyeing to proceed with the deferred commercial launch of its 5G services as early as the first quarter this year.

The company was initially eyeing to launch its 5G services for home broadband and enterprise customers by the fourth quarter of last year, but deferred it to this year to have a clearer view of the new technology.

It has been testing 5G “on a proof of concept basis” with technology providers such as China’s Huawei Technologies and ZTE, Finland’s Nokia, Cisco Systems of the US and Sweden’s Ericsson.