PLDT ramps up broadband capacity

MANILA, Philippines — Telco giant PLDT Inc. is ramping up its installation and repair capabilities this year to provide better customer experience and meet the sustained demand for broadband connectivity.

PLDT said the installation capability of its Home business almost doubled as of this month after being hampered by the COVID-19 lockdowns last year.

PLDT Home is set to further accelerate its current pace in the coming months.

The company also starts to see a decline in hotline calls about installation and repair concerns as field response to repair issues start to improve.

“The efforts of our network teams are starting to bear fruit. We still have a lot of improvements to make, but we have been getting positive feedback from our customers. We believe that this is a direct result of being able to repair and fix our customers’ problems,” PLDT Home head Menardo Jimenez Jr. said.

Jimenez said PLDT has also worked hard to address service issues brought about by typhoons that struck the country in November and December.

PLDT’s continuing rollout of its fiber-to-the-home facilities has made its broadband services available to more customers.

The telco’s fiber-to-the-home currently reaches 48 percent of the total 1,634 cities and municipalities nationwide.

For its efforts to continuously expand and improve its services across the country, PLDT and its wireless subsidiary Smart Communications Inc. have been named anew as the Philippines’ fastest fixed and mobile internet networks, based on analysis by Ookla of tests taken with Speedtest covering the second half of 2020.

PLDT is preparing to invest between P88 billion and P92 billion this year to continue beefing up its network.