Taking Smart LTE for a spin

I was among the first batch of beta testers for Smart LTE and even though I’ve been going around the metro almost every day, it’s still hard to spot those 20+ LTE sites. I’m hoping that their numbers will grow in the coming months.

While some of my fellow beta testers have been hitting 17Mbps to 63Mbps, I have not been as lucky as them. Been to the Greenhills site but did not find the signal, the Megamall site is indoors and with the vicinity of the JUMP Center but I was checking from the 4th floor parking and didn’t detect it. The two sites where I was able to get an LTE signal was at Greenbelt and Mall of Asia.

For the testing purpose the area of coverage is actually smaller — around 200m in radius (I am told this will be extended to 1.2km once everything is ready and optimized).

Here are some sample speed tests I made at the MOA site earlier today (outdoor North Parking lot):

The download speed isn’t as impressive as I expected it to be but it’s possible there’s someone else in the area sharing it with me. However, the upload speeds of 7Mbps is crazy (for those uploading HD videos on YouTube) fast.

The results of the speed tests I got at the Greenbelt 3 sites yesterday was mediocre but I hear other testers are able to hit over 10Mbps around here.

I am hoping I’d have some more time to check out the Ayala sites as well as the one in Greenhills and Megamall again.

Notice the really low latency rates on these speed tests (fast Ping times). I also noticed the dial-up time of the Mobile Partner (Huawei dialer software) is pretty fast — under 1 second to connect to the network.

My top download speed is around 0.5MB/s which isn’t bad (again some testers are reporting 1MB/s download speeds). I guess I’m just not as lucky as them.

I’m hoping the number of sites will improve and the signal range be extended so I can have more time to use the LTE network and really get the hang of it.

Update: After several attempts, I finally found a really nice spot at the Greenbelt 2 open parking (the one beside McDo) and got very good speeds of up to 40Mbps.

Did some torrent downloads and the cumulative download speed reached a very fast 1.9MB/sec.

What is the current coverage radius of Smart LTE during testing?

The coverage radius is around 200 meters, which will be extended to 1.2 kilometers once optimized.

What upload speed was observed at the MOA site?

Upload speeds of 7Mbps were observed, which is fast for uploading HD videos.

Where did the beta tester successfully detect an LTE signal?

The beta tester detected an LTE signal at Greenbelt and Mall of Asia.

React to this article:

24 Comments

Angelo · 12 years ago

sa cavite po bacoor area may record po ba kayo ganu kabilis
ang lte?

JOSH VINCENT · 15 years ago

Parang naka-Smart Bro Power Plug-it lang ang mga speeds..hehehe..Parang niloloko lang po tayo ng smart..hahaha..

ulvadu · 15 years ago

seconding Vince on his request – place the isp server there and it will come up with all sorts of crazy numbers. Place in a california server you get a more realistic value of what to expect when accessing services.

jayeatworld · 15 years ago

It really depends what you’re testing. Are you testing LTE connections to your ISP or your ISP’s internet connection?

To make sure the bottle neck isn’t the connection between you and your ISP you should choose your ISP’s server in speedtest.net. Ones you cancel that out, you can then test other locations.

vince · 15 years ago

“you must choose the server which is hosted by PLDT or SMART.”

why not an indipendent and non biased server instead

angry birds · 15 years ago

Hi Yugatech,

If you want to test the actual speed using speedtest.net you must choose the server which is hosted by PLDT or SMART.

sonofa · 15 years ago

baka damaged yung unit mo?

Technokyle · 15 years ago

Sir Abe,

Pa test po ng ping kung ang host ay sa US or Asia. thanks po!

peter · 15 years ago

puede po ba magamit sa pinas ang samsung galaxy s2 HD LTE na galing dito sa Korea?

PrinceTey · 15 years ago

Sir, not sure if that will work here, been waiting for that GS2 trim to arrive here in the phil. How did u get one?

Jorick · 14 years ago

I think it will work. According from what I red LTE is a network band (like WCDMA, GSM, etc) and only few countries has those LTE service. Same here in Korea may LTE service, you just need a SIM card and a device that supports LTE. If that Smart LTE has a SIM card, then you can use it to your SGS2LTE. Mine is SGS2 bought here in Korea and if ever LTE will be available in Cavite I’ll definitely get that SGS2LTE, bonus pa ang hardware improvements ng SGS2LTE

blitZ · 14 years ago

i think di pwede yan! USA base yung frequency na gamit nang smart!! ksi there preparing for the upcoming iphone5 with LTE and also yung LTE nang new ipad LTE magagamit na ata!!! iba yung frequency at technology nng korea same as japan lng ata!!