PLDT Group mulls higher 2015 capex

MANILA, Philippines - Dominant carrier Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) is likely to allot a higher budget for its capital expenditures next year amid plans to provide faster Internet service in other parts of the country.

Rolando Peña, technology group head of PLDT and Smart Communications Inc., said the company is now finalizing the amount of capital expenditures for 2015 which would likely be higher than the P32 billion budget for 2014.

 Peña said the share of the budget for network infrastructure next year would be bigger than the 75 percent to 80 percent share this year.

 “For next year, the share of network infrastructure will be bigger because we will bring it farther,” he said.

According to Peña, the PLDT Group is looking to cover all the municipalities nationwide and is set to extend the reach of its time division – long term evolution (TD-LTE) and frequency division – LTE (FD-LTE) to the provinces.

Peña said Smart is set to fire up 1,400 more new long-term evolution (LTE) sites to meet the growing demand for high-speed Internet services.

Smart is set to deploy an additional 1,000 TD-LTE sites to bring high-speed mobile broadband speeds to more cities and municipalities in Bulacan, Cavite, Cebu, Laguna, Pampanga, Rizal, and Metro Manila.

It is also beefing up its mobile network infrastructure by adding 400 more mobile LTE sites in Metro Manila as part of the continuing roll out program for LTE facilities.

This would bring the total LTE footprint to more than 3,400 sites across the country.

“Our continuing investment to expand capacity, reach, and availability in our network allows us to deliver the best Internet experience to subscribers in both mobile and fixed platforms,” Peña said.

He pointed out that the cost of putting up a tower is around $100,000 while the equipment would cost another $100,000.

However, the company spends more to transport the equipment to the provinces.

He added that Smart is also “deploying new technologies such as LTE Advanced to be able to respond to the expected demand in mobile data for years to come.”

The strategy of the company is to roll out a combination of network platforms meant to address the different needs and requirements of subscribers in different areas.

According to him, the company intends to bring high-speed Internet access to homes through Fiber-To-The-Home (FTTH) and DSL to 1,725 areas or vilages with a total capacity of 300,000 lines by the end of the year from 1,463 areas or villages in 121 cities and municipalities.

Smart is able to deploy a mix of fixed and wireless technologies because the PLDT Group has rolled out more than 90,000 kilometers of fiber-optic cables around the country. It has also modernized its mobile network to make more than 10,000 sites 4G-enabled, enabling it to quickly roll out LTE services via a simple software update.