Globe to spend more for capex

Ayala-led telco Globe Telecom Inc. may spend more than the $850 million programmed worth of capital expenditures this year to enable the network to support increasing data traffic.

“Our data use grows between 20 and 30 percent every quarter. And we expect it to grow even more because we are spending all that money. We announced a spend of $850 million this year and are likely to go beyond that this year because the data growth has been really beyond expectation,” Globe president and chief executive officer Ernest Cu said at the sidelines of the launch of the DisneyLife app.

During the January to March period this year, Globe registered a 37 percent increase in data traffic to 181 petabytes from 131 petabytes in the same period last year.

One petabyte is equal to about 3.4 years of 24/7 full HD (high-definition) video recording.

Demand for data is seen to continue increasing with consumers spending more time on their devices beyond messaging, but to download apps and enjoy content as well, Cu said.

He said the launch of the DisneyLife app would be another reason for customers to have a data plan.

The DisneyLife app launched through an exclusive partnership with Globe last week, is being made available for the first time in Asia, starting in the Philippines.

Through the app, users can enjoy over 350 movies from Disney, Pixar, Marvel and Star Wars; more than 5,000 kids’ television episodes; and over 6,000 music tracks, all in one app for a monthly subscription of P149.

Each subscription allows a user to create six accounts, register up to six gadgets and use the DisneyLife app simultaneously on four devices.

Globe is forging partnerships with content providers like Disney to provide relevant offering to customers and take advantage of rising data traffic.

“Our goal at Globe is to become the content partner of choice. I think it is showing today, the data traffic, number of partnerships, number of subscribers we have,” Cu said.

Earlier, Globe also partnered with other content providers such as Netflix, Cartoon Network, Sports Illustrated, and Fox Network.

As of end-March, Globe had 63.3 million mobile subscribers and 1.40 million home broadband customers.