Smart Communications, Inc. has just taken home five Opensignal Mobile Experience Awards including Best in 4G Availability, Best in Video Experience, Best in Upload Speed Experience, and Best in Download Speed Experience. Opensignal is a third-party mobile analytics firm.
This is according to the latest country report which covered July 1 to September 28, 2020, and independently analyzed over 186 million measurements from over 336,000 devices.
Smart also won the inaugural 4G Coverage Experience award, a measure of how mobile subscribers experience 4G coverage on an operator’s network. It analyzes the locations where customers of a network operator received a 4G signal relative to the locations visited by users of all network operators.
Opensignal said both Smart and Globe have made gains in terms of 4G availability, with Smart continuing to widen its lead over its competitor.
“While both Smart and Globe have made significant gains in 4G Availability since our last report, Smart has extended its lead in this measure of the mobile experience. Our Smart 4G users saw the proportion of time they spent connected to 4G services rise by 3.5 percentage points, taking the operator above the 85% mark and increasing its lead over Globe,” Opensignal Senior Analyst Sam Fenwick said.
The analytics firm also noted that Smart has continued to dominate in speed and the mobile video experience. “Smart users have consistently had the fastest download speeds and the best mobile Video Experience in the Philippines,” Fenwick wrote. He added that since they first analyzed Video Experience in a Philippines Mobile Network Experience back in March 2019, Smart has won every Video Experience alongside Download Speed Experience and Upload Speed Experience awards.
These improvements happened despite difficulties presented by COVID-19 lockdowns in terms of limiting network crew movements.
“Despite 2020’s challenges, our Smart users’ download speeds have risen by 8.1%. This is extremely impressive, given the challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic,” Fenwick wrote.
Opensignal also noted that the current 5G rollouts may increase user speeds in the future. “Looking to the future, it’s clear that both operators have ambitious 5G rollout plans and as adoption of new generation of mobile technology increases, so will the speeds and scores seen by our users,” Opensignal said.
In the third quarter of 2020, Smart rolled out an additional 279 5G base stations as it accelerates its 5G commercial services nationwide.
To date, the company’s mobile data networks cover 95% of the Philippine population. It has increased the number of its LTE base stations by 17%, compared to end-2019 as of September 2020. Smart’s mobile service is supported by PLDT’s fiber infrastructure which covers 395,000km, up by 22% from end-2019.
Ram found his love and appreciation for writing in 2015 having started in the gaming and esports sphere for GG Network. He would then transition to focus more on the world of tech which has also began his journey into learning more about this world. That said though, he still has the mentality of "as long as it works" for his personal gadgets.
