Globe expanding LTE network amid growing demand

The Philippines’ Globe Teleom expects to be generating around half of its mobile data traffic from LTE by the end of the year.

The operator plans to deploy 600 more LTE cell sites by this time to cater to growing demand, taking its total network of sites up to nearly 5,600.

Currently around 43% of Globe’s data traffic comes from its LTE network, which operates on the 700-MHz, 1800-MHz and 2600-MHz bands.

Total mobile data traffic for the first six months of the year climbed 85% year-on-year to 280 petabytes as smartphone penetration increased to around two thirds of the opeartor’s total mobile subscribers, Globe’s latest statistics indicate.

Globe has been concentrating its LTE rollout on Metro Manila and other densely populated areas.

But a significant number of its customers are still using 3G SIMs with LTE devices or vice versa, so the operator is encouraging customers to upgrade for a superior experience. Since January the company has migrated around 900,000 customers using LTE devices onto LTE SIMs.