The Philippines’ largest integrated telco PLDT is ramping up its installation and repair capabilities this year to meet the sustained demand for broadband connectivity in the new normal and provide better customer experience.

Initially hampered by the COVID-19 lockdowns last year, PLDT’s Home business has since almost doubled its installation capability as of January and is on track to further accelerate this pace.

The company is also starting to see a decline in calls following up on installation and repair concerns via its hotlines and other customer support channels, as field response to repair issues start to improve.

“The efforts of our Network teams are starting to bear fruit. We still have a lot of improvements to make, but we have been getting positive feedback from our customers,” said PLDT Home Head Menardo G. Jimenez, Jr. “We believe that this is a direct result of being able to repair and fix our customers’ problems,” Jimenez said, adding that PLDT has also worked hard to address service issues brought about by typhoons that struck the country in November and December.

Continuing rollout

PLDT’s continuing rollout of its fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) facilities has made its broadband services available to more customers. Currently, PLDT’s FTTH reaches 48% of the total 1,634 cities and municipalities nationwide.

To keep households connected, PLDT Home launched its #RediscoverHome campaign to enable more Filipino families to Work@Home and Study@Home. #RediscoverHome features Fibr Plus plans that offer unlimited Fibr, Whole Home WiFi coverage, and Cignal HDTV.

Recently, it also launched PLDT Home Biz, a program for micro entrepreneurs operating at home which provides not only the fastest and reliable internet connection but also the right partner e-commerce tools that are vital in operating a business amid the current pandemic.

These services are supported by PLDT’s fiber infrastructure, the most extensive in the country at 429,000 kilometers as of December 2020. With 9 million homes passed, PLDT is looking at a significant potential market in the near-term.

PLDT recently announced that it was prepared to invest between Php 88 billion and Php 92 billion in capital expenditures this year. The PLDT Group’s investments in capital expenditures totaled Php 260 billion from 2015 to 2019.

For its efforts to continuously expand and improve its fixed and wireless networks across the country, PLDT and its wireless subsidiary Smart Communications, Inc. have been named anew as the Philippines’ fastest fixed and mobile internet networks, based on analysis by Ookla of tests taken with Speedtest® covering the second half of 2020.

Ookla reported that PLDT achieved a Speed Score of 27.28, with top download speeds of 79.48 Mbps and top upload speeds of 92.18 Mbps. The fixed network award is based on 74,788,737 customer-initiated tests taken with Speedtest for Q3-Q4 2020.

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