Globe Telecom of the Philippines is working on upgrading its in-deployment 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks with the rollout of 4,300 new cell sites across the country. According to the cellco it is looking to expand its LTE Time Division Duplexing (LTE-TDD) and LTE Frequency Division Duplexing (LTE-FDD) footprint in the Philippines to meet pent-up demand for data from smartphone, tablet and other data-ready devices, and is ploughing USD700 million into future-proofing the network. The cellco is also testing the latest 4G technologies on its network; carrier aggregation (CA), which optimises the efficiency of frequency utilisation by aggregating higher bandwidth capacity; and LTE Evolved Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (eMBMS), which increases efficient video and multimedia delivery.
This year, Globe is earmarking up to USD850 million for its capital expenditure programme, including around USD200 million of its unused budget from 2014. ‘With the growing demand for data and internet connectivity, the company anticipates that approximately 75% of CAPEX would be related to data, including spend for deployments of LTE mobile and LTE @Home, capacity and coverage augmentation of the 3G, HSPA+ and DSL network, as well as requirements for domestic transmission and international cable capacities.’