In the recent One Digital Nation event of Globe, President and CEO Ernest Cu was very open about the telecom’s positioning in regards to their progress. As the number 1 mobile brand in the Philippines, Cu stated that they are the most preferred telcom for smartphone smartphone users.
In 2015 alone, Globe Telecom planned to invest $850 million for infrastructure improvement but was cut short to $700 million due to slow procurement in the local government. Cu stated that the national government has no problem, but the local government is being a bottleneck for their expansion.
Also announced was Globe’s massive infrastructure expansion program that aims to tap 2 million households by the year 2020. He said this would involve vamping up mobile and wire-line networks’ capacity by 70 percent.
One more issue that Cu urged to be addressed is for the harmonization of the 700mhz spectrum. Currently the 700mhz spectrum is assigned by NTC to San Miguel Corporation which has 0 subscribers and Cu mentioned that Philippines is the only country with such government policy of having only one company hold a certain spectrum.
In the event, Cu was also asked “What would happen if Globe doesn’t get the 700mhz?” and answered that Globe and even other competitors will have to build more cell sites instead of just adding repeaters.
Overall this is a serious issue that needs to be addressed, with the Philippines booming in performance overall as a country. We need better communication infrastructures for more foreign investors and even to get the Philippines out in the top list of slowest internet in the world.
