PLDT-Smart Aims To Achieve An Average Broadband Speed Of 30Mbps By 2021

Written by Marc Adrian

By 2021, PLDT-Smart is aiming to attain an average broadband speed of 30Mbps according to its Senior Vice President Mar Tamayo in an interview on Thursday, November 5, 2020. He made the announcement during his briefing at the House on the state of telecommunications and internet services in the Philippines.

Tamayo told lawmakers in the briefing:

“Uunahin po muna ang Metro Manila at key cities para kaya natin i-maintain, then we go outward, over to the rest of the population in the next couple of years.” 

He also added that PLDT-Smart is committed to expanding its 5G and LTE services.

The first quarter of this year shows that the PLDT-Smart download speed has improved by 78.1% since the fourth quarter of 2017. On top of that, 4G availability has improved by 27.8 points, which went up to 86.9% coverage in the same period. 

PLDT-Smart’s Senior Vice President explained that it takes time, a lot of investment, but they have gradually started doing so. Currently, the provider’s minimum average broadband speed is 20Mbps. By mid-2022, they aim to achieve 100% fiber connection across the country, and they are currently seeking the help of National Telecommunication Communications (NTC) in requiring consumers to shift to fiber and fiber-like services. 

He revealed that there are still subscribers who don’t want to switch to fiber and would rather just stick to DSL copper-based internet service. Thus, PLDT-Smart is tagging along with NTC to convince those subscribers to switch to the new technology (fiber) due to the massive speed difference. When Fiber and DSL copper are servicing the same list, it dilutes the average speed test result. 

 

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