PLDT steps up fiber roll-out; up by 50% according to new Ookla report
Fixed broadband internet speeds in the country have improved markedly as Philippine telecom operators led by PLDT Inc. step up the deployment of fiber-powered facilities.
In its latest Speedtest Global Index report, Ookla, a leading global Internet testing and analysis firm, said that the country’s download speeds increased 50 percent from 10.16 Mbps to 15.67 Mbps, while upload speeds jumped from 7.28 Mbps to 13.53 Mbps.
“These results reflect the growing impact of our ongoing efforts to provide fiber-powered broadband services to more customers in more areas of the country,” said Oscar A. Reyes, Jr., PLDT SVP and Head of Consumer Business Market Development.
As of end-2017, the coverage of PLDT’s industry-leading Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) network had reached four million homes passed as of end-2017. With the ongoing network modernization and upgrade plans in the pipeline, PLDT expects to reach more homes and businesses across the country as it expands fixed broadband coverage by about 30 percent to 5.1 million homes passed.
In terms of capacity, PLDT will double its fiber and hybrid fiber broadband capacity from 1.1 million ports as of end 2017 to over 2.2 million ports within the next two years.
Aside from deploying more fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) facilities, PLDT is also upgrading its copper-based broadband service to the much faster hybrid fiber connections. By 2019, virtually all of PLDT’s 1.3 million copper-based DSL subscribers will enjoy Fiber-fast internet.