As part of its continuous support for COVID-19 frontliners, PLDT wireless arm Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart) has extended communications assistance to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine General Hospital (PGH).
To provide for their connectivity needs during the enhanced community quarantine, Smart is donating free Smart and TNT SIMs and load cards to more than 1,000 AFP personnel deployed across Metro Manila.
Smart has also donated smartphones and load to support the PGH’s newly opened COVID-19 ward, as well as to the Northern Mindanao Medical Center, the designated COVID-19 hospital in Cagayan de Oro.
With these, frontliners in charge of COVID-19 patients, as well as AFP personnel manning checkpoints across Metro Manila and those stationed at their Camp Aguinaldo Headquarters can stay connected via calls, text and mobile data.
This is the latest in PLDT-Smart’s ongoing efforts to provide communications support to frontliners working with local government units, hospitals and government agencies across the country.
Previously, PLDT-Smart has also supported the Department of Transportation (DOTr) and the AFP with free Wi-Fi. In partnership with PLDT Enterprise, Smart supplied LTE pocket Wifi units for buses deployed by DOTr, while Wi-Fi kits were also supplied to the AFP to augment the unit’s command and control requirements.
Smart has also donated e-load to the Department of Health (DOH) personnel, as well as smartphones with Smart SIMs and one month free unlimited calls and text plus data allocation for the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM)’s emergency communication hub.
PLDT, Smart and ePLDT also developed COVID-19 emergency hotlines in partnership with the DOH and the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) for Filipinos seeking consultation and forwarding concerns about the disease. The 24-hour help line may be reached at 02-894-COVID (02-894-26843) and 1555.
