MANILA, Philippines - Dominant carrier Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) spent P2 billion to put up a network with a technology that would bring high-speed wireless broadband services to Filipino homes.
PLDT Technology Group head Rolando Peña said the company has installed the country’s first Time-Division Duplex-Long Term Evolution (TD-LTE) sites from Cagayan province in Northern Luzon to Davao del Sur in Mindanao.
Peña said the sites would complement efforts to broadband the entire archipelago via fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) and Next Generation Network (NGN) services.
TD-LTE is one of the two wireless data transmission technologies that fall under the international standard of LTE, 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,†he said.
According to industry data, the Philippines’ TD-LTE network is one of the largest deployments in Asia Pacific with over 200 base stations and an allocated bandwidth of 100 megabits per second (Mbps).
“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.
He pointed out that PLDT would build 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,†Peña said.
Aside from Metro Manila and Cebu, PLDT TD-LTE sites are also present in 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 P2 billion TD-LTE investment was part of the total P28.8 billion capital expenditures of the PLDT Group last year expanding its fiber optic footprint to 78,000 kilometers.
This year, PLDT has allocated P32 billion for its capital expenditures instead of P29 billion. The additional budget is part of the realization of the climate change in light of the P900 million damage brought about by Super Typhoon Yolanda that wrought havoc in the Visayas region last Nov. 8.
PLDT intends to put up base stations in areas that are in the typhoon path to withstand winds of at least 300 kilometers per hour. The budget would also be used to attain a 100 percent 3G (Third Generation) coverage, build more long term evolution (LTE) sites, expand its fiber optic network to 90,000 kilometers, a new international cable system, and additional investment in service delivery platforms and network intelligence.
PLDT is expanding the footprint of its 3G network that should be 100 percent coverage and its LTE footprint to fully cover at least the major cities in the country including 25 other municipalities or 45 percent population coverage in LTE.