HD multimedia services to go full blast this year

MANILA, Philippines - Smart Communications Inc., the wireless unit of dominant carrier Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT), said its high definition (HD) multimedia services would go full blast this year with the completion of its P67-billion network modernization.

Emmanuel Lorenzana, executive vice president and wireless consumer division head of Smart, said in a statement that the company’s modernized network allowing long term evolution (LTE) and HSPA+ services would help Filipinos “create, disseminate and propagate rich media content.”

For this year, he said the technological leadership of Smart’s network would help HD multimedia enter mainstream status.

“Though devices which are capable of generating HD content have been available for years, being able to share HD pictures, music, and videos online has been a challenge,” he stressed.

Similar to hearing the difference between AM and FM radio stations, HD voice makes it easier for callers to recognize commonly misheard sounds.

HD Voice is initially available in select areas in Makati City and Bonifacio Global City in Taguig and could be enjoyed on smartphones running on 3G that are capable of Adaptive Multi-Rate Wideband (AMR-WB).

“Our world-class network will help Filipinos make their presence felt on the Web wherever they may be in the country,” he said.

PLDT and Smart network head Rolando Peña said 2012 was a turning point for the Philippine telecommunications industry.

“Many have said that 2012 was going to be the ‘doomsday year’, but for us it was anything but the end. In fact, 2012 will be remembered as the year modern mobile telecommunication was born,” Peña stressed.

In mid-2012, Smart completed super-charging its mobile network under PLDT’s network transformation program, allowing it to introduce LTE services capable of delivering speeds of up to 42Mbps in August.

The P67.1-billion endeavor involved the installation and upgrading of network equipment which enabled the company to improve its existing services and to introduce new ones.

“The PLDT Group has more than 54,000 kilometers of fiber optic cables which link up the entire country - more than three to four times than what our competitors could claim,” said Peña.

Last October, Smart successfully linked all of its Metro Manila cell sites via fiber and completed linking its cell sites with that of sister company Sun Cellular nationwide.

Both projects helped improve the quality of Smart’s call, text, and data services–a that fact was confirmed by major network suppliers and by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC).

Based on NTC’s December figures, Smart’s super-charged network bested competition in terms of the following key performance indices: block call rate, drop call rate, call set-up time, average signal quality, and average receive signal level.