Globe Telecom to put up 2,000 additional sites for 3G, WiMax
by Emilia Narni J. David, BusinessWorld
Posted at 01/26/2010 10:38 AM | Updated as of 01/26/2010 10:38 AM
MANILA, Philippines - Globe Telecom, Inc. said Monday it would add 2,000 more sites for third-generation or 3G mobile phone services as well as for its Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access or WiMax service this year.
Gil B. Genio, Globe Telecom head for business and carrier services and chief executive officer of unit Innove Communications, Inc., told reporters in a briefing yesterday that the company would beef up its 3G and WiMax networks.
“We plan to add 1,000 sites for both 3G and WiMax throughout the year, not necessarily through building new sites but also upgrading our old sites to handle the systems,” said Mr. Genio.
At the end of 2009 Globe Telecom had 3,000 3G and 900 WiMax sites in addition to 60,000 regular cellular sites.
Mr. Genio said Globe Telecom would concentrate its WiMax rollout within urban areas which have a greater demand for data transfer, and the 3G network in both urban and rural areas because “3G is also used to call and text, not just send data.”
Upgrades for the network will be done by placing antennas on existing towers. The cost of building stand-alone physical structures for 3G or WiMax will be more than the cost of the electronics to be placed, he said.
Only Globe Telecom and Smart Communications, Inc. are offering WiMax services in the country.
To boost the broadband speed and capacity of Globe Telecom’s system, the company said it has invested $60 million in the new Southeast Asia Japan Cable (SJC) system.
“Our initial activation in the SJC is 40 gigabytes per second. Last year Globe alone had a data capacity of 21 gigabytes per second so the SJC can bring more capacity. In fact it would be seven times more than the capacity three years ago which was less than one gigabyte,” said Mr. Genio.
Globe Telecom said this would cover the high data capacity used by business process outsourcing clients and other consumers.
The SJC system is owned by a consortium of telecommunication and technology firms in Southeast Asia and the Pacific. These are Globe Telecom, Google, KDDI Japan, Network i2i of India, Reliance Globalcom of Bermuda, Telemedia Pacific Inc., Ltd. of Hong Kong, SingTel of Singapore, and PT Telekomunikasi International of Indonesia.
Globe Telecom increased its net income for the nine-month period ending September by 12%. Profits rose to P9.9 billion from January to September 2009 from P8.8 billion in the same period in 2008. Subscribers to the mobile business dropped to 23.1 million from 23.7 million due to the deliberate churning out of some “lower-quality” subscribers.
Last November, Globe Telecom said its broadband business had grown to 320,000 subscribers, mainly due to the higher take-up of its Tattoo mobile broadband service. In its third-quarter financial report, Globe Telecom said broadband revenues grew to P2.2 million from P1.3 million, or a 69% increase.
Originally Posted by RAEON
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