MANILA, Philippines — Smart Communications Inc. has upgraded all its sites in Visayas with LTE, increasing the capacity and speed of its wireless data networks.
Smart said it has fired up its last remaining site in the Visayas with the activation of LTE in the far-flung coastal community of Kawayan, a fifth-class municipality in island province Biliran.
This brings to nearly 1,500 the number of Smart sites in the region now operating on LTE.
Smart said it has expanded to date its LTE capacity in the Visayas by 31 percent compared to end-2019.
“Rolling out in an archipelago and in the countryside presents unique challenges. This has to be taken into consideration,” PLDT-Smart senior vice president for network planning and engineering Mario Tamayo said.
“Recently, we fired up an LTE base station in Pag-asa Island in the municipality of Kalayaan, the country’s most remote cell site. We have also fired up a cell site in Barangay Tucdao, Kawayan in Biliran. These are far-flung communities, but we are committed to doing this. We have been constantly improving our services by expanding our network wherever possible,” Tamayo said.
Smart LTE is available in major cities in the Visayas such as Cebu, Iloilo, and Bohol, in Tacloban and Ormoc in Leyte, as well as in the Eastern Samar capital city of Borongan, Northern Samar capital of Catarman City, and western cities of Catbalogan and Calbayog.
As of end-August, PLDT’s wireless subsidiary said it had increased the number of LTE base stations by 15 percent to 28,200 nationwide in order to provide reliable mobile connectivity and address the increasing demand of customers due to COVID-19 pandemic, where most employees and students are at home.
PLDT has also expanded its fiber network across the country to more than 382,500 kilometers to support Smart’s wireless network by providing high-capacity fiber connections for LTE-powered stations.