Ramon Isberto, Smart Communications. Inc. head (right) introduces LTE-A during the Asian Carriers Conference. With him is Patrick Belicena network division head. (CDN PHOTO/ TONEE DESPOJO)
Smart Communications Inc. introduced its Long-Term Evolution-Advanced (LTE-A) during the Asian Carriers Conference at Shangri-La Mactan which drew 1,500 delegates from telecom firms around the world last Thursday.
Patrick Belicena, who heads Smart Communications Inc.’s network services division, said once operational the LTE-A will be the first to run in the country and may help address the issue of slow Internet speed.
A demo showed that the LTE-A had a download speed of 130 mbps and an upload speed of 20 mb file per second.
Belicena said they’ve been testing the technology since last year in Makati, Boracay, Davao and Cebu City. The speed could go as fast as 150 mbps upload speed and up to 30 mb file per second
Unlike the previous technologies from Edge to LTE, the LTE-Advanced can use more than two frequencies at the same time.
“GSM operates in certain frequencies, each operators in specific regions are given specific frequencies. China, Japan, Europe, America uses different frequencies. Smart has been assigned by NTC with different sets of frequencies. When we introduced our LTE before, we used one of our frequencies but with LTE-Advanced we will be able to use all other frequencies (from different technologies) at the same time,” Belicena said.
Belicena said there’s no device available in the country that is LTE-A ready yet. During the testing, Smart used a Korean-version of Samsung S4.
Ramon Isberto, public affairs head of Smart Communications said the device is one major key consideration to make it work for the consumer.
“We are still working it out with our handset partners. We are making ourselves ready so that when the devices will be available we will be ready,” Isberto said.
He also said that Smart is ready for this technology which has been used in the United States, Hong Kong, Australia, Singapore since they are done with their modernization plan.
“This is access technology. It can’t work if you don’t have transmission infrastructure that can support it. In our case, the PLDT group, including Smart has expanded our modernization three years ago which included a significant portion of the transmission network in terms of fiber nationwide. Smart transmission network is the most extensive and robust in the country. Our fiber network has 90,000 km. We are offering this (LTE-A) soon because the network is capable of holding the traffic,” Isberto said.
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