THE wireless services arm of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) has extended its free Internet promo by a month, as it seeks to further entice its subscribers to avail themselves of its mobile-data offerings.
Smart Communications Inc. Executive Vice President Charles A. Lim said his firm decided to extend the promo to February 5 due to the “positive response” of its customers to the offering that was launched several months ago.
“We are very pleased to extend it and continue providing our subscribers—many of whom already have the mobile devices capable of accessing the Internet but have yet to use them to go online—the opportunity to try out and experience the Internet. This way, Smart can truly push ‘Internet for all’ and spread the benefits of the Internet in the fastest and most effective way possible,” he said.
Alongside the extension, Smart also announced that its network is ready for the expected surge in mobile data traffic in 2015, as the increasing affordability of data-hungry smartphones encouraged more Filipinos to snap up devices in the last few weeks of 2014.
Over a fourth of Smart and Sun Cellular’s combined over 69 million subscribers are already using smartphones, helping drive a robust 112-percent increase in mobile data traffic within the network, equivalent to 27,000 terabytes worth of data exchanged from January to September 2014, compared with just 13,000 terabytes of data for the same period the year prior.
“We can only expect these volumes to increase exponentially in the months ahead,” Lim said.
The promo allows the subscribers of Smart, Talk ’N Text and Sun Cellular to surf the Web through their phones for free. It has a data cap of 30MB daily, and is available across all network platforms—from 2G to 3G to 4G speeds in the country.
Smart continues to have the largest mobile network in the country today, with a total of 24,938 cellular/broadband base stations, including 9,946 active 4G/HSPA+/Long-Term Evolution (LTE) base stations, supported by more than 90,000 kilometers of fiber-optic cables around the country.
“We have prepared and fully modernized and expanded our network for this uptrend, in terms of reach and availability. Beyond that, we are also accelerating our data capacity build-out, as part of our continuous efforts to future-proof our network in light of increased demands in mobile data for the coming months and years,” PLDT Spokesman Ramon R. Isberto said.
PLDT is spending roughly P36 billion in capital expenditures this year to further expand its network’s capacity.