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SMART COMMUNICATIONS, Inc., the wireless arm of PLDT, Inc. plans to upgrade 40% of its sites to fifteenGeneration (5G) by the end of 2021.
The company said in a press release Sunday that it will upgrade 4,000 of its base stations to 5G next year, in addition to rolling out 4,000 additional LTE or long-term evolution base stations across the country. The company deployed 279 base stations in the third quarter to support its 5G networks.
Smart’s PLDT fiber infrastructure supporting 4G, 3G and 2G has reached 422,000 kilometers in November. Smart has also increased its LTE and 3G base stations to more than 58,000, 20,000 more than in 2019.
Smart has also installed more than 700 new towers so far this year, as it plans to reach 726 by the end of 2020.
“Not all of these new sites are already related to the permits we have received so far, as it will be many months after the permits have been granted until a site is fully built and operational,” said the chief information and technology advisor from PLDT, Joachim Horn. “These sites will help us increase our LTE population coverage to 94-95%, cover more municipalities and provide more capacity for dense areas. This goes hand in hand with all the other expansion efforts made this year. “
Smart has obtained 1,600 permits since the Anti-Bureaucracy Authority issued a joint circular memorandum that gave way to enforcement orders for local government units to grant permits to build cell sites. It plans to roll out 2,000 cell sites next year.
PLDT’s investments in capital expenditures or capex totaled P432 billion from 2011 to September 2020. It sees a capex of at least P70 billion by 2020.
The company registered a net profit of P19,690 million as of September, 23% more than in the same period last year.
Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., a subsidiary of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund, has a controlling interest in Business world through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls. – Jenina P. Ibáñez
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