MOBILE-services company Globe Telecom Inc. is ramping up its investments in telecommunications infrastructure to future-proof its network as smartphone adoption in the Philippines continues to surge.
Globe President Ernest L. Cu said the company will continue to spend more in developing new ways to meet the demands of its customers in the digital space.
The firm, he said, spent about P11.4 billion in capital expenditures during the first half of the year alone. Bulk of the capital was allocated for data-related projects, including investments for the company’s broadband network, capacities for wireless data, LTE, domestic and international transmission facilities.
“As more and more of our customers shift to a digital lifestyle, Globe is continuing to make data-driven capital investments to provide increased network capacities and enhance customer satisfaction. This will build capacities of our network to handle the explosive growth of data traffic of our customers,” Cu said.
A significant portion of the company’s capital for the year was also allotted for its information-technology (IT) infrastructure, as Globe continues to create platform for new products as well as to build on its IT-transmission initiatives.
“These investments are intended to provide our customers with holistic digital experience. We expect growth in smartphone use to continue and that presents a very good opportunity for us moving forward. Globe has committed itself out to building on its capacities to ensure that the data requirement of our customers continues to be served,” Cu said.
More than a third of Globe mobile customers are using smartphones.
The executive claimed that his company “solidified its leadership” in the mobile-data space after registering a P9.5-billion mobile browsing and data revenues during the first semester. The figure represents a 53-percent growth from the P6.2 billion the prior year.
Aside from the growing number of smartphone users in the Globe network, sustained emergence of various products and services that include over-the-top applications, music, video streaming, gaming and social media that leverage the Internet and data also provided support for the company’s mobile data business. “Through various partnerships with global digital giants, we have built a portfolio of products and services that provide relevant content to fit our customers’ digital lifestyle. We also continue to capitalize on these partnerships to further seed data adoption among our customer base,” Cu said.
He added that such partnerships not only proved useful for Globe, but also helped these content providers establish a strong foothold in the Philippine market.
The official cited, for instance, Spotify, a Globe partner in music streaming. It has so far streamed 2.5 billion songs, making the Philippines the fastest growing music-streaming market in Asia and second in the world. Hooq, Asia’s first over-the-top video service, has streamed over 3 million minutes since its launch in February this year.
Also, as a result of the company’s partnership with Facebook, the social-networking site has over 18 million in daily active users, growing by 50 percent from a year earlier, Cu said.
“These are testaments to the growth of the Philippine market and our role through our partnerships in shaping this growth,” he added.
Growth in mobile broadband across Asia Pacific is expected to surge as more and more people are likely to start using smartphones and embrace data connectivity.
Estimates indicate the region will have 1.9 billion LTE users and about the same number of 3G users by 2020.