Smart Q1 data traffic doubles

MANILA, Philippines — PLDT's  wireless arm Smart Communications said its mobile data traffic doubled in the first quarter as more customers turned to  mobile video and social media apps.

Smart said its  mobile data traffic doubled to 636 petabytes.

Supporting the growth of mobile data traffic has been the continuous expansion and upgrade of PLDT's fixed and wireless network.

As of the end of March, Smart increased the number of 4G/LTE base stations to 26,000.

PLDT’s fiber infrastructure, which supports Smart’s network by providing high-capacity links to LTE base stations, is now at 338,500 kilometers nationwide, five percent more from end-2019.

“Our LTE-powered mobile data network has passed the initial COVID stress test. The money and effort we’ve invested in our network have enabled us to provide quality service to our mobile phone customers even as data usage continued to rise, particularly since people have been forced to stay at home by the pandemic,” Smart president and PLDT chief revenue officer Alfred Panlilio said.

As a result of higher data traffic, Smart’s service revenues grew 20 percent to P20.2 billion in the first quarter.

The share of data revenues to total wireless consumer revenues rose to 72 percent from 65 percent last year.

Smart's data usage and revenue numbers for the first quarter do not yet fully capture the “COVID effect” since the enhanced community quarantine was imposed in Luzon only in the second half of March.

Responding to the new needs of its customers, Smart launched last month its GIGA Work bundle, which features work collaboration apps and productivity tools such as MS Teams, Google Meet and CISCO WebEx for videoconferencing, MS Office 365 and GSuite for work collaboration, and PayMaya, Lazada, Shopee, and Grab for delivery and payments.

“Our goal is to provide solutions that will enable them to pursue their daily lives productively and safely during and after this time of COVID and as everyone adopts to the emerging new normal,” said Jane Basas, senior vice president and head of the wireless consumer business.