OpenSignal has recognized SMART Communications for having the country’s fastest LTE network, bestowing the company four citations including best in 4G LTE download speed; best in overall download speed; best 4G latency performance; and best 3G latency performance in its March 2018 report. In its report which covers November 2017 to January 2018, SMART’s LTE speeds has outpaced its competitor with download speeds of 12.5 MBps – significantly faster than its rival’s 7.69 MBps.
The latest OpenSignal report found Smart LTE speeds superior across all measured areas, such as in the National Capital Region (13.04 Mbps vs competitor’s 8.57 Mbps), North Central Luzon (11.59 Mbps vs 6.34 Mbps), South Luzon (11.66 Mbps vs 7.03 Mbps), Visayas (13.49 Mbps vs 7.37 Mbps), and Mindanao (14.42 Mbps vs 7.38 Mbps).
The firm also evaluated the network’s latency, or the amount of time a data is exchanged through the network, determining its responsiveness. Measured in milliseconds (ms), a lower latency score is a sign of a more responsive network, which is critical for lag-free mobile gaming. Smart came ahead in 4G latency, rating at 47.21 ms, quicker than the competition’s 60.7 ms. The abovementioned 2017 OpenSignal blog post noted that a maximum latency of 50 ms is required for an ‘awesome experience’ in playing top mobile games like Clash Royale, Critical Ops, Mobile Legends, and Super Mario Run.
On the other hand, Smart’s 3G latency also fared better at 154.64ms, compared to its rival’s 174.98ms.
Smart is ramping up its LTE roll-out across the country, and is accelerating the deployment of LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) to deliver bigger bandwidth and much faster data speeds to mobile phone users.
“With our ongoing roll-out of LTE and LTE-Advanced to more areas, we are on track to meet our commitment to the National Telecommunications Commission to achieve 90% municipality coverage for 3G and 4G mobile broadband by the end of this year,” said Mario G. Tamayo, PLDT and Smart Senior Vice President for Network Planning and Engineering.
Along with its network upgrades all over the country, Smart continues to inform and encourage customers to take full advantage of the improved Smart LTE network across the country by: 1.) upgrading to an LTE-capable smartphone; and 2.) switching to a Smart LTE SIM.
