The Philippines' Smart Communications is close to meeting its target of covering 90% municipalities with 3G or 4G mobile broadband services by early next year.
The PLDT subsidiary is nearly complete with an upgrade of more than 4,200 base stations nationwide, and has already achieved a coverage of around 89%, the Philippine Daily Inquirerreported.
The operator has so far finished an LTE deployment in Metro Davao and Metro Cebu, while works are underway in Metro Manila and key cities elsewhere in the country.
Smart sped up the deployment of its LTE network following the joint acquisition with rival Globe of spectrum and other telco assets from San Miguel Corporation, having more than doubled its LTE cell sites this year.
In July, Smart said it is targeting 70% population coverage with its LTE network by the end of the year.
The operator is meanwhile deploying four component carrier aggregation (4CC CA) across Metro Manila in stages after successful tests of the technology on the island of Boracay.