PLDT to expand FTTH footprint by 80% in 2017

PLDT plans to expand the reach of its high-speed FTTH service by around 80% in 2017 to reach 4.4 million homes passed, the company announced.

The expansion will see around 1.9 million new serviceable homes added to the network footprint, which reached 2.5 million homes last year following an aggressive fiber rollout.

PLDT offers FTTH services under the PLDT Home Fibr brand, which offers speed of up to 1Gbps.

PLDT Home Fibr has also introduced the nation’s first symmetrical fiber service, and the platform is being used to support a growing line of smart home services such as home monitoring services.

The operator has also started to deploy G.fast technology from Huawei and hybrid fiber technology GiGa Wire, developed by KT. The technologies can provide speeds of up to 700Mbps per user over existing copper last mile connections.

“We are stepping up our efforts to deliver unrivalled internet services to more homes in various parts of the country, from the Ilocos provinces in the North to Zamboanga in the South,” PLDT chairman and CEO Manuel V. Pangilinan commented.

PLDT had a capex budget of around $1 billion last year, and a significant portion of this was allocated for the rollout of domestic fiber infrastructure.