PLDT boosts spending for broadband scheme

Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. has invested approximately P2 billion over the past year to bring to high-speed wireless broadband services to subscribers’ homes the country’s first Time-Division Duplex-Long Term Evolution (TD-LTE) technology, company officials said.

PLDT technology group head Rolando Peña said the company has built TD-LTE sites from Cagayan province in Northern Luzon to Davao del Sur in Mindanao to complement efforts to provide broadband connectivity to the entire archipelago via fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) and Next Generation Network (NGN) services.

TD-LTE is one of two wireless data transmission technologies that fall under the international LTE standard, the other being Frequency-Division Duplex (LTE-FDD) which is used by mobile networks.

“We are using LTE-FDD for our mobile networks and TD-LTE for fixed wireless broadband services, running on separate frequency bands. This ensures sufficient capacity for our fixed and mobile high-speed broadband services,” Peña said in a statement.

“This will surely transform the Filipino family’s Internet experience by giving them ready access to multimedia services like social media, movies, games and music,” he added.

According to industry data, the Philippines’ TD-LTE network is one of the largest deployments in the Asia-Pacific with over 200 base stations and an allocated bandwidth of 100 megabits per second (Mbps).

Peña said that PLDT is building more TD-LTE sites this year to reach the most remote areas of the country. “We are committed to bring Internet access to each city and municipality in the country. TD-LTE will help us achieve that objective.”

Aside from the big provinces like Metro Manila and Cebu, PLDT TD-LTE sites also include Bulacan, Pampanga, Tarlac, Bataan, Isabela, Nueva Ecija, Pangasinan, Aurora, Cagayan, Abra and Nueva Vizcaya in Northern and Central Luzon; Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Quezon, Sorsogon and Palawan in Southern Luzon; Aklan, Iloilo, Negros Occidental, Bukidnon and Leyte in the Visayas; and Misamis Oriental, Zamboanga del Sur, Agusan del Sur, Misamis Occidental, Lanao del Norte and Sultan Kudarat in Mindanao.

Peña said that the TD-LTE service is only one of a range of broadband services that the PLDT group offers to cater to the various needs of its customers.

“With maximum speeds per individual user of up to 42 Mbps, the ultra-fast TD-LTE is almost six times faster than WiMax and 21 times speedier than Canopy, and can serve more customers than both,” he said.

The said investment last year was part of the total P28.8 billion capital expenditures of the PLDT group in 2013 that saw further expansion of its fiber optic footprint to 78,000 kilometers which is far ahead of competition. The aggressive fiber expansion in the last three years allowed the PLDT group to reach more areas and adopt new technologies that would provide its customers better experience.