Globe Telecom Inc. said Friday it is accelerating the deployment of the 700 megahertz band to increase utilization of the spectrum by over 300 percent in a bid to improve the internet experience of customers.
Globe president and chief executive Ernest Cu said the company planned to roll out within the year the LTE 700 in close to 1,800 sites, more than a three-fold increase from the 500 sites deployed last year.
“We continue to maximize the use of the previously unutilized 700 MHz because at the end of the day, our basic product is still the network,” Cu said.
“Globe has consistently delivered superior mobile services and as the country’s network of choice by smartphone users, we want to be able to stay ahead of the demand curve, taking into account our customers’ growing requirement for bandwidth-intensive content,” he added.
Globe aims to provide mobile coverage to about 95 percent of cities and municipalities in the country within a three-year period, as committed to the National Telecommunications Commission, said Cu.
In addition to the LTE 700 sites, Globe is expanding coverage and increasing capacities for 1000 sites using the 2600 MHz band.
Globe gained access to the 700 MHz and obtained additional allocation in the 2600 MHz following a partial acquisition of San Miguel Corp.’s telecommunication assets. Prior to the acquisition, such spectrum assets were idle and unutilized.
Cu said the new LTE 700MHz and LTE 2600 MHz sites would be deployed in densely populated areas, mainly in Metro Manila, Metro Cebu and Metro Davao, where majority of customers using LTE-compatible devices are located.
Globe began deployment of LTE sites using the 700 MHz band in June this year following the acquisition of San Miguel’s assets, which also included spectrum resources in the 1800 MHz, 2300 MHz and 2600 MHz.
Globe plans to deploy 425,000 high-speed broadband bands within 2017 in line with the target of rolling out 2 million home broadband lines with speed of at least 10 Mbps by 2020 in support of a commitment to improve fixed internet in the country. To date, over 260,000 home broadband lines have already been deployed.
Progressive roll outs will be done within the next three years until 2020 to serve at least 2 million homes.
Globe has deployed free WiFi services in 500 major areas of convergence that include airports, bus terminals, Ayala Malls, Starbucks chains, convenience stores and MRT and LRT stations.