Globe Telecom Inc. on Monday said it is building more new cell towers after securing a total of 799 permits in the first three months of 2021.
“We are very grateful to local government units (LGUs) which are very supportive of our plans to improve our services in their respective areas,” said Joel Agustin, Globe senior vice president for Program Delivery, Network Technical Group.
“This appreciation on how LGUs may make or break efforts to give their people much needed internet connectivity is most welcome,” he added.
The company received 219 permits in different areas in North Luzon and 191 more in Visayas. Local government units in the National Capital Region released 179 permits while those in Mindanao and South Luzon issued 113 and 97 permits ,respectively.
In January, Globe gained a total of 253 permits, followed by 242 in February and 304 in March.
Overall, Metro Manila topped the provinces with the most permits, followed by Cebu, Nueva Ecija, Pangasinan and Davao del Sur. Thirteen other provinces have issued 10 or more permits.
On a per-city basis, Makati City issued the most with 56; followed by Cebu City with 39; Davao City with 33; Manila with 27; and Pasig City with 25.
Agustin clarified that the construction of cell towers would take time and that it was important to secure the permits way ahead of time so customers could enjoy the improved services at once.
“It will take us at least three months to install a new tower and it will also depend on its location, accessibility, logistics and quarantine protocols implemented in the area where we secured the permits. We would like to assure our customers, however, that we will build the new cell sites as soon as possible,” Agustin said.
Globe’s aggressive network builds and network modernization to 4G LTE and 5G has resulted in improved services to its customers nationwide.
According to Ookla’s Q1 2021 data, the telco’s nationwide consistency score is now more than 70 percent. Metro Manila registered Globe’s best score with more than 76 percent while impressive percentages were also noted in Rizal, Bulacan, Cavite, Cebu City and Davao City.
Globe earlier said Wednesday it was seriously looking at exploring satellite services to access rural areas where wired services have yet to be established.
“We see the satellite service as a promising deployment model that can reach the rural areas where there’s not much household density and will be challenging to roll out wired services,” said Globe vice president and head of broadband business Darius Delgado.
The telecom unit of the Ayala Group said, however, cited certain limitations, as the overall cost structure of building sites anchored on satellite services have not yet matured. Prices need to go down to be financially viable and serve the masses, especially those who are currently unreachable by fixed structure.