Tuesday, December 3, 2024

PLDT-Smart eyes commercial launch of 5G services by Q4

Telecom firm PLDT, through its wireless subsidiary Smart Communications, is eyeing the commercial launch of its 5G wireless technology for its residential and business customers by the fourth quarter of this year.

“There are still no mobile devices that are 5G-ready as well as standards. So, we might start with our Home and Enterprise clients by the fourth quarter,” PLDT chairman and CEO Manuel V. Pangilinan told reporters on the sidelines of its annual stockholders’ meeting on Tuesday, June 11.

Pangilinan added that PLDT is still eyeing Chinese firm Huawei as one of its suppliers of 5G technology despite efforts by the United States to ban the sale of its products due to cybersecurity concerns.

“These are the suppliers of our 4G and some elements of our fixed networks. Of course, we raised the security issues with them. They have promised to cooperate,” said the PLDT head honcho.

The US government has added Huawei to its Entity List last May, preventing the company form acquiring technologies from American firms without government approval amid allegations that its network is being used for surveillance and other eavesdropping purposes by the Chinese government.

Smart has already activated its first 5G cell sites in Makati City and Clark, Pampanga last November through its partnership with Huawei and Ericsson. It has also signed an agreement last March with Nokia for the deployment of 5G in schools across the country.

For its part, Globe Telecom said that it intends to launch its 5G technology by June as it currently conducts trial runs in areas outside Metro Manila. — Aerol John Pateña (PNA)

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