Globe Telecom announced that it deployed close to 1,700 LTE sites across the country to date, using the 700 megahertz frequency.
Aggressive deployment of LTE 700 sites has led to improvement in the country’s mobile speeds. Speedtest results for January this year showed that mobile download speed in the Philippines improved to 12.55 Mbps from 9.34 Mbps in January 2017, with upload speed increasing to 5.86 Mbps from 4.68 Mbps a year earlier.
Joel Agustin, Globe SVP for Program Governance, Network Technical Group, emphasized that as more Filipinos shift to LTE-capable devices, Globe Telecom is ramping up network investments to maximize the available spectrum allocated to the company to further improve customer experience. Last year alone, Globe deployed more than 1000 LTE sites on the 700 MHz frequency.
Aside from the 700 MHz frequency, Globe also acquired additional frequency allocation in the 2600 MHz band following acquisition of San Miguel’s telecommunication assets, enabling the country’s leading telecommunications provider to expand coverage and enhance capacities.
The company also rolled out close to 2,000 sites on the 2600 MHz and 1800 MHz bands. Majority of the company’s LTE 700, LTE 2600 and L1800 sites were deployed in densely populated areas, mainly in Metro Manila, Metro Cebu and Metro Davao where a high number of customers are on LTE-capable devices.
“We are already getting close to providing the entire Metro Manila with seamless LTE coverage amid customers’ growing requirement for bandwidth-intensive multi-media content. As the need for bandwidth is likely to increase further moving forward, the aggressive use of 700 MHz and other spectrum allocation will enable us to stay ahead of the demand curve,” Agustin said.
Using the 2600 MHz, Globe also fired up around 170 massive MIMO sites. Massive MIMO technology enables a mobile network to multiply the capacity of a wireless connection without requiring more antennas. The technology thus increases wireless throughput, accommodating more users at higher data rates with better reliability while consuming less power. Massive MIMO is also the fundamental radio access technology for 5G. The 5G network targets to have higher speeds, lower latency and better capacity, enabling higher density of mobile broadband users and supports device-to-device connectivity and massive machine communications.
