A few weeks ago, Smart Communications announced the completion of its network improvement program in Metro Davao. Residents and visitors in Davao City and nearby municipalities are reportedly noticing the difference in their mobile internet experience, particularly huge improvements in LTE coverage.
The reason? Smart has reportedly tripled the number of LTE base stations in the area, activating more cell sites and using low–band frequencies, particularly the 850 and 700 MHz bands.
Telcos are periodically making some tweaks in their networks and systems to keep their technologies at par with worldwide mobile internet standards – like LTE which is currently the most advanced commercially available mobile network. But this year, there have been leaps in terms of the improvement of telco services and Smart is attributing it to its use of the 850 and 700 MHz bands.
If you can recall, it’s in the middle of this year when Smart has been granted access to the 700MHz frequencies previously owned by San Miguel Corporation. As explained to us before, low-band frequencies are ideal for the propagation of LTE, as they cover a larger area and they allow mobile signals to better penetrate walls and other obstructions.
This means that one base station can serve more users within a wider radius. And more importantly, the use of these bands will significantly improve indoor LTE signals. These make sense as mobile internet was designed precisely for surfing on-the-go, at same time, most of these “on-the-go” moments are also spent in indoor areas like workplaces, schools, commercial establishments, metropolitan areas covered by buildings, and more.
With the success of Smart‘s 700MHz deployment in Davao (and Boracay too, but the island is also enjoying another tech tweak called Carrier Aggregation where two or more frequencies are combined to accommodate faster flow of heavier data), the telco is gearing up for a massive replication of this network improvement program in more areas in the country.
In fact, Smart has already started firing up the 700Mhz LTE signals in Metro Cebu and Metro Manila. In the next few weeks, Smart users in these areas will start to catch LTE signals in more places than ever before. Neighborhoods, buildings and establishments that used to have 3G, HSPA or HSPA+ will start having LTE coverage. Users can experience seamless LTE connectivity as they traverse the roads or hop from one spot to another. Moreover, they can enjoy stronger LTE signals indoors, so sticking one’s phone out of the window to lock in to the best signal available will be a thing of the past.
As Smart prepares its network to offer its best LTE coverage yet, Smart is also urging its users to
be ready when the first wave of upgraded LTE signals arrive. To get the best possible mobile internet experience, it is best to use an LTE device, and to make sure that device is configured to work with the lower-band 850 Mhz and 700Mhz frequencies. It is easy to check. You may check your device’s manual or website, or you may look it up online by searching your device’s name and its full phone specifications or tech specs.
Smart is also compiling a list available phones and their respective frequency compatibility. The matrix can be accessed via this link.
If you’re considering buying a new device soon, better check the full specs and see if the phone you are eyeing is 700MHz-ready, so you can take full advantage of Smart‘s improved and expanded LTE network coming in the next months. Get a 700 Mhz-ready device so after the upgrade in Smart’s physical cell site equipment and systems are over and the kinks expected during network upgrades are ironed out, you’ll be ready to be the first to experience and enjoy Smart’s best network yet.