The Philippines’ second largest telco by subscribers Globe Telecom has deployed an outdoor distributed antenna system (ODAS), in an effort to improve mobile phone signal quality for its subscribers. Telecom Lead notes that ODAS, effectively a small cell site, is an alternative solution to building mobile towers, and makes use of infrastructure such as specialised lamp posts with in-built radio transmission capability, improving the end user experience. Globe Telecom is the first mobile operator in the Philippines to use ODAS in this way.
Globe Telecom has earlier earmarked USD650 million in capital expenditure for 2013, and its head of networking technologies strategy, Emmanuel Estrada, said: ‘The ODAS technology effectively brings coverage much closer to residents through the installation of lamp posts deployed along sidewalks. These facilities deepen mobile coverage by bringing radio signal closer to end-users.’ ODAS supports all frequency bands used by wireless carriers, including 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology, providing stronger support for mobile data services.