Telcos urged to sustain network improvement

MANILA, Philippines - Mobile service providers in Asia, including the Philippines, will have to continuously invest in the upgrade of their networks given an expected increase in data traffic as smartphones and similar devices become more accessible, a top executive of technology provider Alcatel-Lucent said.

Rajeev Singh - Molares, president of Alcatel-Lucent Asia Pacific, said in a briefing yesterday that like with the rest of the world, growing data traffic is expected in Asia as smartphones and devices are being rolled out and becoming more affordable for consumers.

“One of the things we noticed is consumers get comfortable, get familiar with applications and they start to use it (devices) in more ways than the company providing the service can expect and see enormous growth in data traffic,” he said.

He said that as more and more people use their devices in different ways such as for downloading videos or for entertainment as well as for banking transactions, it strains the network which would then require service-providers to continue to invest in the upgrade of its infrastructure.

He said that for the Philippines, which is moving to provide more information technology services, it is fundamental to upgrade the capacity or reliability of the networks.

“The challenge is only going to go up as we move forward,” he said.

He cited Globe Telecom for realizing the need to respond to the growing data traffic through its planned network upgrade.

Globe said it plans to spend $790 million for the modernization of its network over a five-year period starting this year.

Singh-Molares said the bulk of the work for the upgrade of the network capability will be done this year until next year which is expected to result in improved network reliability.

The project, he said, will be undertaken with Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., which will supply the bulk of the equipment, and Alcatel-Lucent which will take the lead for project management and integration.

“This is a complex project of upgrading the infrastructure ensuring that the system and process is working, that consumers in the Philippines, customers of Globe will not feel any disruption,” he said.

He added that once the network upgrade is completed, Globe will need to continue to invest in the infrastructure given the data traffic.

“You have to think of networks as living things that need to be maintained [and] fed,” he said.