Globe fast-tracks LTE deployment in Vis-Min

Globe Telecom has fasttracked deploying Long Term Evolution (LTE) sites in Visayas and Mindanao with 3,000 LTE sites activated to date, covering almost 60% of its physical sites the region, Senior Vice President for Program Governance, Network Technical Group Joel Agustin yesterday (August 24, 2017) disclosed.

LTE sites address growing demand for bandwidth as more Filipinos go for multi-media content. Already, Globe mobile data traffic surged 85% to 280 petabytes at the end of the first half from 151 petabytes a year earlier.

“We expect customer experience to continue improving as we step up deployment of LTE sites,” he added.

Notably, the LTE sites use 700 MHz, 1,800 MHz and 2,600 MHz.

While lower frequencies such as the 700 MHz band provide better signal penetration and offering stronger indoor coverage, the higher frequencies, such as the 1,800 MHz and 2,600 MHz bands, provide additional capacity for data, the SVP explained.

In particular, the use of the 2,600 MHz frequency provides additional capacity layer over existing Third Generation (3G) and LTE capacity layers, improving customers’ Internet experience as data traffic carried on other frequencies are off-loaded.

As part of the telco’s aggressive bid to roll out LTE sites, Globe is also expanding its network infrastructure and putting up more cell sites although for many years now, circuitous permitting process involving at least 25 permits and taking at least 8 months to complete has hampered its efforts.