PLDT expands, extends free Internet

MANILA, Philippines - Leading multimedia and telecommunications provider Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) has expanded and extended its free Internet service as part of efforts to promote the use of mobile devices to connect to the Internet.

PLDT chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan made the announcement about the expansion and extension of the free Internet service via his Twitter account @IamMVP.

 “Even better – free Internet now open to all prepaid, postpaid, and broadband subscribers of Smart, Talk ‘N Text, and Sun #SmartFREEInternet for ALL,” Pangilinan said.

The free service now covers the 72 million subscribers of the PLDT Group that includes Smart, TNT, and Sun Cellular.

Last Sept. 26, the PLDT Group announced free internet access to the 66 million prepaid subscribers of Smart, TNT, and Sun Cellular wherein each subscriber is given free access to the internet with a volume of 30MB per day until Nov. 30.

However, the PLDT Group expanded the offer to include postpaid as well as broadband subscribers and at the same time extended the period to Jan. 5 next year.

 “TY for the overwhelming response to #SmartFREEInternet. Our early Christmas gift to our loyal and new subs - offer now extended to Jan. 5,” Pangilinan tweeted.

Charles Lim, executive vice president of PLDT and head for wireless consumer business at Smart, said all the 72 million subscribers of the PLDT group would be covered by the special offer and could enjoy browsing through all their favorite websites as well their social media accounts using their data-enabled handsets.

Lim added that subscribers could also send and receive emails, use their favorite mobile apps, and shop online without incurring additional data charges.

“This is our way of thanking our subscribers as well as a response to the requests of our postpaid and broadband subscribers to be included in the special offer. It is part of our overall strategy in accelerating mobile Internet adoption and usage in the country,” he said.

On top of free Internet, PLDT said all subscribers could also enjoy “unli” “all-you-can” Facebook access - including sending messages via Facebook messenger and viewing of videos embedded in the social networking site.

Likewise, subscribers could also enjoy all-day Wikipedia access as well on top of their daily 30MB free data allocation.

PLDT and Smart technology head Roland Pena reiterated that the company’s extensive network infrastructure would be able to cope with the expected heavy volume of internet usage from its subscriber base.

“With millions of subscribers going online, our network has been performing very well, enabling them to sign-up for the service to take advantage of the free Internet offer,” Peña said.

The PLDT Group has thus far rolled out about 90,000 kilometers of fiber optic cables all over the country providing the transmission facilities needed to support Internet services. It has also the most extensive international cable systems needed to connect the Philippines to the rest of the world.

Last Wednesday, PLDT also announced that it is spending P540 million to boost the capacity of its 90,000-kilometer domestic fiber optic network by 13 percent to 4.6 terabits per second starting the first quarter of 2015.

 The PLDT Group is likely to spend between P30 billion and P35 billion for its capital expenditures next year from P32 billion this year.