Globe commences Massive MIMO rollout

The Philippines’ Globe Telecom has commenced the commercial deployment of massive multiple input multiple output (MIMO) technology to improve the mobile connectivity experience in dense urban areas.

The commercial deployment follows initial testing of the technology in the Makati financial district of Metro Manila. The testing demonstrated the ability of the technology to improve capacity up to six times compared to a regular site.

Globe’s initial rollout will cover 150 cell sites, mostly in Southern Luzon and Northern Luzon, according to Joel Agustin, SVP for program governance at the operator’s Network Technical Group.

“The use of massive MIMO technology is an important component of our goal to stay ahead of the demand curve for data capacity in densely populated and high-foot traffic areas,”  he said.

Globe this month also became the first operator in the world to activate massive MIMO using two-carrier aggregation, the company said.

The deployment makes use of Globe’s 2.6-GHz spectrum holdings. Globe acquired additional 2.6-GHz spectrum from last year’s joint purchase of San Miguel’s telecoms assets with rival PLDT.