Globe to deploy fiber in 20,000 villages

The Philippines’ Globe Telecom has committed to connect 2 million Filipino homes with high-speed internet access with a speed of at least 10Mbps and above by 2020.

The operator plans to deploy fiber in 20,000 villages across the country to achieve this goal.

“That will change a lot for families because families today are so dependent on the internet,” said Globe President and CEO Ernest Cu at an event on Friday night.

“Industries and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) also cannot flourish without dependable connection to the United States, the UK, Australia and to the rest of the world.”

“We are committed to spending $500 million to upgrade the network of Globe to enable continuous growth among enterprises in the Philippines,” he added.

Since the joint purchase of the telco assets owned by San Miguel Corporation (SMC) by Globe Telecom and PLDT last May, both companies have been rolling out LTE 700-MHz cell sites across the country. In the Globe network, around 250 such cell ties will have been activated in Metro Manila by the end of this month, at least 188 of which will be active in the National Capital Region.

Cu said the goal is to deploy at least 500 LTE 700-MHz cell sites nationwide by the end of 2016.

The majority of these sites will cover major business districts and highly urbanized and populated areas in the country, including Metro Manila, Metro Cebu, and Metro Davao.

Globe’s chief executive emphasized that the company is maximizing the use of the previously idle 700-MHz band in fulfillment of its commitment to the National Telecommunications Commission to improve the overall internet experience of its customers following the sell-out of SMC’s telco assets.

“One of our goals its to try to create an experience as close to first world internet as possible. You can now do this with mobile, given the amount of spectrum that we have,” he said.

Parallel to this, Globe has also started rolling out a capacity expansion program for its corporate data network to address the bandwidth requirement of its enterprise clients. The company will be equipping 61 of its corporate sites with fiber technology.