Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart), PLDT’s wireless subsidiary, has just bagged the ‘Best in Test’ award from the infrastructure and benchmarking specialist umlaut, part of Accenture.
Smart – umlaut award
Umlaut also cited Smart for having the best rate upload speeds, download speeds, and latency experience. These are a testament to the company’s initiatives to continuously strengthen its network and provide enhanced mobile services.
Germany-based umlaut said Smart posted an overall score of 801 out of a maximum of 1,000 points. The report included 985 million samples connected from May to October 2022 and showed that the telco’s ahead in terms of mobile wireless voice, internet browsing, mobile video and gaming, and OTT messaging performances.
Smart score achievements include:
- voice metrics – including call set-up times and voice quality
- data – covers uploads and downloads speeds, web browsing, and consistently good and reliable throughput across the country
- crowdsourced elements to check the quality of coverage and reliability of sessions.
Hakan Ekmen, CEO Telecommunication of umlaut, part of Accenture, and umlaut representatives recently met with PLDT and Smart network executives led by PLDT Network Head Eric Santiago to hand over the award. Among those in attendance were Head of Network Quality Radames Zalameda, Head of Network Strategy and Planning John Emill Buencamino, Network Build and Implementation Head Debbie M. Hu, and Head of Network Design Arvin L. Siena.
“This is a great recognition by umlaut. We at PLDT like to say that our customers are our North Star. The mobile benchmarking by umlaut demonstrates that we have delivered on that promise and underscores our efforts to sustain our leadership in the marketplace,” said PLDT Network Head Eric Santiago, who added that moving forward, PLDT will also include artificial intelligence and machine learning technology to ensure continuous improvements.
As of end-September, Smart deployed 77,200 base stations, including 7,300 5G base stations, and close to 40,000 4G/LTE base stations. Its network covers 97% of the population with 3G, LTE, and 5G.
The network is supported by PLDT’s fiber infrastructure, the most extensive in the country. As of end-September, PLDT has expanded its total fiber footprint to about 1,091,000 km, consisting of over 231,000 km of international fiber and almost 860,000 km of domestic fiber.
“We are here to ultimately enable hybrid workplaces and businesses in the New Normal, as well as boost Government’s digitalization initiatives,” he added.
Since 2019, Smart has been given the “Best in Test” award. This year, the company was cited for having the best and widest 4G/LTE coverage, and the fastest upload and download speeds.
In 2021, umlaut noted Smart’s superior and progressively improving network even with the impact of COVID-19, unlike its competitor. Additionally, the Philippine telco was also cited for consistently showing higher throughput rates than its competitor and for providing the best network performance during the 30th Southeast Asian Games in December 2019.
For more information on Smart and its products, click here.
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.
