The mobile unit of PLDT Inc. said it is on track to deploy long-term evolution network in 783 municipalities by end-2017, covering half of its three-year target of 1,551 municipalities by end- 2018.
“We are asking for people’s patience and understanding as we are upgrading our network facilities. We assure you that we are taking steps to minimize the impact of these activities on our subscribers. In the end, our commitment to all our subscribers is that they will enjoy progressively better mobile data services in the next few months, particularly for those using LTE devices,” said PLDT Inc. and Smart senior vice president for network planning and engineering Mario Tamayo.
The comprehensive network modernization and expansion program features re-equipping cell sites to provide better indoor coverage and increase the capacity of each Smart cell site to handle more calls, texts and increasing mobile data traffic.
Smart rolled out the country’s first LTE-A service in Boracay in April 2016 in anticipation of the rise of bandwidth-heavy services such as video streaming and gaming.