Globe fast-tracking LTE 700 rollout

The Philippines’ Globe Telecom is fast-tracking the rollout of LTE over its recently-acquired 700-MHz spectrum.

The operator revealed it has recently rolled out more than 150 700-MHz base stations, mostly in Metro Manila.

The new sites cover major business districts and populated areas in the country. Globe launched its first 700-MHz base station Quexon City in June, and the company said its LTE 700 sites now cover the majority of the city.

Globe is planning an initial rollout of 200 compatible LTE 700 base stations, and has committed to deploying around 4,500 multiband, multimode software defined radio base stations covering 95% of municipalities and cities in the country.

“We are confident that more and more of our customers will experience improved services as adoption of LTE-capable devices increases and as we continue to deploy LTE 700 in more sites,” Globe senior vice president for network technical group program governance Joel Agustin said.

“This is consistent with our strategy of continuously improving internet services using the previously idle 700 MHz spectrum that the NTC now allowed us to co-use.”

Globe acquired rights to co-use the 700-MHz spectrum after joining with rival Smart to acquire San Miguel Corporation’s telecoms assets for a combined 69.1 billion pesos ($1.5 billion) earlier this year.