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Smart completes roll-out of 9,500 LTE base stations

Since we beta tested the LTE service of Smart from last year (it ended around March), I’ve been asked a lot of times when they will officially launch the service in the Philippines. There was lot of noise about it since last year leading to 1st quarter of this year and then there was silence.

We were expecting that by June, Smart would have already launched its LTE service commercially and we’d actually be able to experience those blazing fast mobile internet speeds (I was getting as fast as 40Mbps on SpeedTest and up to 2MB/s on torrents).

During the beta phase back in February, we were told that Smart was fast-tracking the network upgrade and their engineering team was working 24/7 equipping the base stations for LTE deployment.

This week, they have announced that they’re finished with the network upgrade — “Smart replaced the radio equipment in 9,500 base stations with next-generation facilities that have increased its network’s capacity“.

“Every single base station of Smart is now easily upgradeable to fourth-generation technologies like HSPA+ and LTE,” added Smart president and CEO Napoleon L. Nazareno.

That means with a flip of a switch, we can have a full functional LTE network. When this switch will be turned on is another matter altogether (an Engineer from Huawei tells us it’s just a software switch). Could be this month, next month, end of the year or next year. What I know is that they promised it will be up and running and we will see speeds of up to 50Mbps on our LTE handsets (or modems) really soon. Then again, the service will certainly priced at a premium.

And that’s all that we know for now.

{source}

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Avatar for Abe Olandres

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

39 Responses

  1. Avatar for Gensanboy Gensanboy says:

    Kuntento na ako sa speed ng sun dito sa gensan …2.26 to 3 mpbs…. At least consistent 24/7. Mura pa unli P100 for 3 days. Pang masa ang price.

  2. Avatar for ZEF ZEF says:

    stable na 2mbps lang sakin sa mobile ayos na…
    eh hindi nga maibigay eh…
    From laoag city ako ilocos norte.
    Sun pinaka mabilis dito pag off peak kaya ng upto 3mbps HSPA+ pag peak naman 384kbps-768kbps kahit na HSPA+ pa.
    What the sense of the upgrade if hindi nga maibigay yung tamang speed sa current na ginagamit nila ngayun… hayz…

  3. Avatar for MildMannered MildMannered says:

    Iba naman experience ko between Smart and Globe. Mas ok ang Globe either I’m at the office or at Home. 2 yrs akong naka smartBro at swerte na pag umabot man lang ng 128kbps ang speed pag nasa bahay..While sa Globe I get a speed of 1mbps upto 2.7mbps consistently.

  4. Avatar for Soul Annihilator Soul Annihilator says:

    Errr…. Ni di pa nila nama-maximize yung potential ng HSPA+, pinagyayabang na naman nila yung LTE upgrade. Ok lang sana kung maganda yung current HSPA+ services nila.

    • Avatar for DaOtherEye DaOtherEye says:

      Atleast their HSPA+ coverage is way better than Globe (even on ordinary 3G). Globe puro EDGE na nga lang at GPRS, mas madalas pa na di gumagana.

      Globe = FAIL!

  5. Avatar for bakulaw bakulaw says:

    Nag endorse na naman etong mokong na ito.
    Hoy, itigil mo na ang kaka endorse!!!

    Ampanget mo!

    • Avatar for DaOtherEye DaOtherEye says:

      It is still tech news, eventhough it sounds like an endorsement (which people from the competition would only care).

      It’s good for us to know that there is actually a player in the mobile industry who is upgrading their network diligently, not just by lip service… unlike the “leader in postpaid(daw) na nag-overhype ng $700 million USD network modernization plan pero sobrang bagal naman kumilos at mukhang kakalawangin na ang bagong equipment bago nila mapatakbo at sasabihin pa sa yo na may network enhancement sa area mo if something goes wrong kahit wala naman at pumapalpak lang ang network.

      http://t.co/spkyMZH9

      Dinadaan lang sa PR ang imaginary upgrade.

  6. Avatar for kriman kriman says:

    :)50mbps talaga,, dapat GIG na bentahan dito eh

  7. Avatar for kriman kriman says:

    Great Plan. hopefully it will happen :)

  8. Avatar for aze aze says:

    im using htc sensation for mobile browsing, last december upto march maybe the speed was great at home or at office. 2-6mbps, suddenly bumagal bigla smart, sa office nag sswitch form hsdpa+ to 3g. sana maayos na nila talaga to. i prefer good speed consistency than inconsistent balzing fast internet. for me hsdpa+ is almost good for DL, daily use. im a long time smart subscriber btw pero sa iphone ng kasama ko na naka globe anlakas ng internet speed nya hayst. Sir Yuga, question lang in terms of data speed ams mabilis ba 4s nya sa sensation ko? o parehas lang?

  9. Avatar for asa ka pa asa ka pa says:

    another marketing strategy na hindi naman tapat.
    another one of the usual utility with good advrtising but poor service tsk tsk tsk

  10. Avatar for meh meh says:

    Lets hope those 9,500 lte points are just in manila. Globes HSDPA has been a complete joke at best it gets 2Mbps down .

    In the USA thats hardly 3g speed

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