Philippine telco giant PLDT and mobile subsidiary Smart Communications ended 2020 on a high note, successfully rolling out and expanding their network to improve their services.
According to PLDT, their fiber infrastructure is now the most extensive in the country, comprised of more than 429,000 kilometers as of December 2020. This same fiber infrastructure supports Smart’s mobile networks, which is now available in 95 percent of the country’s cities and municipalities, covering over 96 percent of the population.
Smart, on the other hand, has also made strides by the end of 2020 with over 59,000 base stations, all the while enabling Smart 5G in key cities across the country. To date, Smart has over 10,000 sites across the country, including more than 700 new cell sites fired up by the end of 2020 despite the challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Since July 2020, PLDT-Smart was able to secure over 2,500 permits to build more cell sites, on top of the 4,000 secured by PLDT.
From 2015 to 2019, PLDT has invested Php 260 million in capital expenditures. For 2021, the telco group is prepared to invest between Php 88 billion and Php 92 billion to further improve its fixed line and mobile services.
