Smart, Globe seek additional frequencies

Competing cellular phone operators Globe Telecom and Smart Communications Inc. are set to apply for additional cellular frequencies to accommodate their fast growing number of mobile phone subscribers.

Emmanuel Estrada, Globe vice president for mobile communications, said the additional frequencies will be utilized for the company's expansion program.

He said the firm needs an additional five megahertz (MHz) in the 1800 bandwidth. An application will be filed by the Ayala-owned firm before with the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) this week.

Globe expects at least five million global system for mobile communications (GSM) subscribers by next year from its over one million customers at present.

Estrada said Globe's network is currently designed to handle 1.6 million subscribers although with continuous upgrade, he said their capacity will be able to serve about 2.4 million subscribers by yearend.

Globe's target is to expand its network capacity to 3.7 million at the end of the year.

Although the NTC has already awarded both firms 7.5 MHz each on top of their existing frequencies, Globe and Smart said they still need more.

According to the two providers, the problem of congestion, poor signal and dropped calls is primarily caused by limited radio frequency which is necessary to handle all voice and data calls passing through the network.

In order to expand and cover the whole country, both carriers said they need new frequencies, otherwise, there will not be enough space in the cell sites to cater to customer requirements.