“LTE promises to raise the quality of mobile broadband services several notches higher compared to earlier technologies,” said Smart chief wireless adviser Orlando Vea, who oversaw deployment of the test network last week.
Although the company said LTE is currently delivering download and upload speeds of up to 50 megabits per second (Mbps), the test network on Boracay Island was constantly hitting 70 Mbps, said Joselito Bacoy, Smart senior manager for planning and engineering.
Smart said LTE is the world’s “fastest mobile broadband technology.”
The company said they’ve already conducted field tests on various 4G technologies including HSPA+ and WiMAX and found LTE superior. The company said LTE offers a peak download throughput of 102 Mbps compared with the 27.8 Mbps of HSPA+ and 23.03 Mbps of WiMAX.
Rival company Globe Telecom recently announced it was rolling a 4G network using the HSPA+ specification.
“Smart’s LTE network is designed to deliver up to 50 Mbps and give individual users performance comparable to today’s wired broadband. Nevertheless, this technology will be able to deliver even faster speeds of up to 100 Mbps in the near futures,” Smart
said in a press statement.
During last week’s LTE test, Smart broadcast via UStream a live feed of events in the network demo area, downloading and streaming the same feed on a large screen, with several units playing YouTube videos without buffering, all on the same connection.
Bacoy said those who tried out their connections in the test network were impressed by the speed.
“For the first time, they watched YouTube high definition videos without buffering,” he said.
With the Internet speeds offered by LTE, Smart said users can download a 1-gigabyte movie in minutes instead of hours, download 300 megabytes of music files in seconds instead of minutes and watch high definition streaming video without buffering.
The company’s LTE network will be marketed under the Smart Evolution brand and the commercial launch of the service is scheduled “in a few months.”
To be able to access the high-speed network, users will need to have an LTE-capable device like a USB dongle or an LTE-powered wireless router that offers Wi-Fi coverage.
The company said it will launch LTE USB dongles but various manufacturers are expected to launch LTE capable handsets soon. Smart said LTE, HSPA+ and WiMAX all require new devices but LTE devices “are usually backward compatible with 3G, HSPA and HSPA+.”
“The main advantage of LTE are high throughput, low latency, an improved end-user experience and a simple architecture resulting in low operating costs. LTE is also backward-compatible with existing GSM, 3G and HSPA networks. This enables mobile operators deploying LTE to provide a seamless service across their LTE and previously deployed networks,” Smart said.
Vea said, “The PLDT Group is committed to extending broadband coverage to 95 percent of the Philippine population in the next three years. LTE will help us accomplish that goal faster and more effectively.”
