Globe steps up LTE deployment

Globe Telecom increased its LTE footprint by about 10 percent in the first quarter of 2018 given continued high demand for high-speed mobile internet services.

The telco giant said in a statement that it had deployed an additional 934 LTE sites dur- ing the period, bringing the total figure to 11,300 sites. The new locations included farflung areas like Jolo, Tawi-Tawi and Batanes.

The company also highlighted how the initiative was aimed at “making full use of the spectrum assets currently assigned to Globe.”

The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), which is in the midst of finalizing rules to select a new major telco player, announced a plan to pursue a spectrum management policy within the year.

Telco players are capitalizing on LTE or 4G services, which allow subscribers access to data-heavy services like mobile video. Two years ago, Globe and rival PLDT Inc. joined forces to acquire San Miguel Corp.’s telco assets, a deal that gave both access to SMC’s LTE frequencies.

Globe has been aggressive in this area. Its mobile revenue in the first quarter of 2018 hit P25.5 billion. This accounted for the lion’s share of its service revenue of P33.2 billion, which went up 6.7 percent year-on-year. Globe added that mobile data revenue alone hit P12.3 billion.

The company announced that it would set aside about $850 million in capital spending for 2018, most of which would be used to bolster data services.

In a statement, Globe said it had also launched some 200 socalled massive MIMO sites.

Massive MIMO technology enables a mobile network to multiply the capacity of a wireless connection without requi- ring more antennas. Massive MIMO is also the fundamental radio access technology for 5G.

“The 5G network targets to have higher speeds, lower latency and better capacity, enabling higher density of mobile broadband users and supports device-to-device connectivity and massive machine communications,” Globe noted in its statement.