Huawei Helps PLDT Upgrade Copper Networks and Move Towards a Digital Society Beyond 100 Mbit/s

[Manila, Philippines, November 17, 2017] Huawei announced that it will cooperate with PLDT, a leading operator in the Philippines, to use existing copper line resources for deploying SuperVector and G.fast networks, which provide bandwidth of up to 300 Mbit/s and 800 Mbit/s respectively. By using Huawei's solutions, PLDT will be able to economically and efficiently build ultra-broadband (UBB) networks.

PLDT is a leading telecommunications and digital services company and owns more than 70% fixed broadband market shares in the Philippines. With the development of social media software, 4K video, and virtual reality (VR), PLDT plans to release new digital services including Pay TV and Smart Home Security, posing higher requirements on network capabilities. To step up to the requirements, PLDT is preparing to provide 5 million users with bandwidth of at least 100 Mbit/s and offer 800 Mbit/s premium broadband services in over 100 high-value buildings by 2018 to bring Philippines towards a digital society beyond 100 Mbit/s.

To help PLDT achieve its goals, Huawei, a long-time partner of PLDT, has collaborated with PLDT to comprehensively evaluate network-wide copper lines as PLDT owns an abundance of copper line resources. Huawei's evaluation report intuitively shows basic line information about network-wide ports and accurately predicts the attainable bandwidth after broadband acceleration at original sites or after site migration, visualizing bandwidth potential of copper lines for PLDT.

Considering PLDT's strategic goals for broadband development, Huawei also provides E2E solutions based on segmented scenarios, greatly improving user experience. For small enterprises and VIP home users, Huawei offers the industry's largest-capacity G.fast solution, in which a single device can provide bandwidth of up to 800 Mbit/s for 96 users concurrently. For high-end home users, Huawei deploys SuperVector devices that deliver up to 300 Mbit/s bandwidth. These devices are compatible with current DSL terminals, enabling smooth upgrade without users being aware of it. For common home users, Huawei deploys vectoring devices in original cross-connecting boxes or fiber to the curb (FTTC) sites, greatly shortening project delivery while offering users up to 100 Mbit/s bandwidth.

Czar Lopez, PLDT's Assistant Vice President for access network planning and engineering, said, "Huawei's evaluation on network-wide copper lines help us identify bottlenecks that hinder copper broadband acceleration. In addition, we jointly set up pilot projects regarding cutting-edge copper line technologies—G.fast and SuperVector. These projects have strengthened our confidence towards copper broadband acceleration and fast delivery."

Gao Kexin, Chief Executive Officer of Huawei Philippines, stated, "PLDT used Huawei's UBB copper solution to upgrade their networks, rapidly enhancing their network capabilities and improving user experience. This sufficiently proves that reusing current copper lines is an economical and efficient way to deploy UBB networks."

Huawei, a world-leading UBB operator in the Gigaband era, has rolled out commercial deployment of SuperVector and G.fast series products in many counties, including the UK, Switzerland, and Italy. Huawei also showcased NG-fast prototypes at Broadband World Forum 2016. Huawei will continue to cooperate with global top operators to build a future-oriented UBB network architecture, bringing a better connected experience to users.