Globe Pours Investments on LTE Deployment, Widest Coverage in Philippines: OpenSignal Report

Globe customers are happier nowadays in enjoying faster mobile internet at more places. According to the latest report from OpenSignal, a UK based company that specializes in crowdsourced mobile coverage mapping, the company scored the highest in terms of LTE availability nationwide with speeds of 7.42 Mbps. This is also a marked improvement from 4 Mbps in February 2016.

Globe garnered the highest score of 55.3% in the latest OpenSignal LTE Availability survey in the Philippines. OpenSignal said that the score means their testers were able to find Globe LTE signal 55.3% of the time nationwide based on data gathered from November 1, 2016 to January 31, 2017.

Globe Senior Vice President for Program Governance, Network Technical Group Joel Agustin revealed that over 1,200 LTE 700 sites utilizing the 700 megahertz (MHz) band and around 2,500 sites for both the 1800 MHz and 2600 MHz bands will be deployed this year on top of existing deployments last year. Around 70% of the company’s $750 million capex for the year has been allocated for the improvement of mobile, home broadband, and corporate data.

“Our strategy to immediately use the dormant LTE spectrum from SMC is paying off. Now more Globe customers especially here in NCR are experiencing the difference of a better and more seamless mobile internet from one area to another," Agustin said.

"We need to continue deploying more LTE sites to fulfill the evolving digital lifestyle of our customers using our mobile network,” Agustin added. Globe customers increased by 12% in 2016 while Globe data traffic reached 361 petabytes, an increase of 44% compared to 2015.

“Globe customers are now experiencing the benefit of a wider LTE coverage with the use of the 700MHz and 2600MHz frequencies. Our plan to roll-out more LTE sites this year is in line with our desire to make the nation admired through expanded coverage, enhanced capacities, and improved overall internet experience of our customers,” he revealed.

Globe rolled-out 1,700 LTE sites in 2016 including 500 sites for the 700MHz band and 1,200 for the 2600MHz band attaining 38% of its commitment to deploy about 4,500 sites using the spectrum under the co-use agreement approved by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) following the sell-out of the telco assets of San Miguel.