Local publication The Philippine Star cites a statement from PLDT’s president and CEO, Napoleon Nazareno, as saying that the completion of the two-year expansion programme ahead of schedule would significantly enhance service quality and reliability.
Through the expansion programme, PLDT has increased its total fibre assets to 54,000km, including 6,000km of FTTH.
“We are close to covering the whole of Metro Manila with the more reliable and faster fibre connection and gaining momentum in servicing the rest of the country,” Nazareno told the publication.
PLDT subsidiaries Smart Communications and Sun Cellular have established a 3G and 4G access network; with 3G reaching the majority of the population and LTE pilots increasing.
Nazareno told The Philippine Star that no other provider comes close to PLDT’s network coverage, and that it was prepared for the explosion in demand for data services. PLDT’s mobile internet revenue nearly doubled in the first half of 2012 with 97% growth.
The Philippine carrier has been engaged in an extensive expansion of its capabilities having announced last month that it had more than doubled its international bandwidth capacity through the completion of the $400 million Asia-Submarine-Cable Express (ASE) system.
In July a 100Gbps upgrade to the carrier’s fibre-optic backbone network was also revealed.
