[14 August 2014] Two years after it pioneered the deployment of
Long-Term Evolution (LTE) or 4G technology in the country, wireless
services leader Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart) announced that 5G
wireless technology LTE-Advanced (LTE-A), is now running in the
Philippines’ largest and strongest network.
Co-founder
and Chief Wireless Advisor of Smart Orlando B. Vea (first from left)
during the tests of 5G LTE-A in Smart last year, where speeds reaching
209.66 mbps were recorded.
Smart
switched on LTE-A at the Smart Jump Center in Mandaluyong City
recently, setting the next phase of mobile communication technology
beyond 4G LTE standards.
LTE-A, also referred to as ‘5G’
by reports on leading global mobile operators AT&T and T-Mobile,
delivers data from between 100 megabits per second (mbps) to 1 gigabit
per second (Gbps), or ten times faster than 3G services and more than
twice as fast as 4G services.
By firing up LTE-A technology on
its network, Smart joins only a handful of carriers around the world
with an LTE-A network, along with leading mobile operators in South
Korea, United States, Singapore, Australia, and Hong Kong.
“Even
as our 3G and 4G networks continue to be unrivaled, Smart becomes the
first operator to leap into the future and put the Philippines at par
with the world’s most advanced countries in terms of mobile
communications technology,” said Orlando B. Vea, founder and Chief
Wireless Advisor of Smart.
With LTE-A, a 10MB file takes less
than a second to download, YouTube videos no longer have to buffer, and
video calls are almost lag-free. But beyond speed, LTE-A’s main feature
is also its capability to allocate more network resources to users when
the need arises. Smart started testing LTE-A across the country in
August last year, delivering results of more than 100Mbps in Makati
City, in Boracay, and in Davao City during the Kadayawan festival.
Internet for all
Ramon
Isberto, Public Affairs head for Smart and its parent company the
Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT), said that the recent
development is part of the company’s multi-pronged approach in
addressing the various needs for internet and data services in the
market.
“The PLDT Group’s strategy has always been to create
solutions that address the varying needs of all segments of our
customers, to bring fixed, wireless and mobile broadband services where
they really matter. They may be delivered at different speeds and
volumes, using a variety of technologies, and meant to respond to a wide
range of needs of the market – but all of it is aimed at bringing the
benefits of the internet to every Filipino,” explained Isberto.
This
strategy meant deploying a combination of Fiber-to-the-Home, Next
Generation Network, Time-Division Duplex LTE, Frequency-Division Duplex
LTE and vDSL to bring internet to every Filipino home, and 3G, 4G, and
5G or LTE-A for mobile subscribers, according to Isberto.
“We are
able to deliver all these high-bandwidth services and applications on
the strength of our transmission backbone network, which is the most
extensive and most resilient in the country. Aside from allowing us to
commit to speed, our unmatched network resources give us the edge in
terms of efficiency and reliability,” added Isberto.
Smart’s
nationwide coverage is backed by PLDT’s fiber optic cable connection
which has now reached nearly 90,000 kilometers, or more than four times
than competition. To further strengthen this domestic fiber optic
network (DFON), PLDT also set up third legs in its fiber loops in key
areas nationwide, the latest of which is the Bohol DFON project that
provided redundant links between the Visayas and Mindanao.
My Smart
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