Globe strengthens push for WiMax

MANILA, Philippines - After the commercial rollout of the first commercial WiMax service in the Philippines early this year, Globe Telecom is strengthening its push for the service, highlighting its core value offering of being 20 percent cheaper and 33 percent faster than other fixed Internet broadband services in the country.

Joy Santos, head of broadband product of Globe Telecom, said the service is now available in 160 towns or broadband markets in the country.

“We are the “nation-widest” in terms of deployment and the largest deployment in Southeast Asia,” she said.

Following its strategy of deploying the service first in the provinces and the periphery of Metro Manila, Globe is now covering more areas, almost doubling every month.

“From an approach perspective, we went out of the National Capital Region first before going in because Metro Manila is already pretty much wired. We deployed it first in areas where there is not much fixed broadband access. But we expect to expand some more in areas that we have not previously covered,” she said.

Another strength of Globe Broadband, Santos said, is that the service is focused on deployment from a network standpoint. “When we say we will go to Cagayan, we go to Cagayan fully rather than cover one part of Cagayan then come back later to deploy the service in another part,” Santos said.

For the WiMax rollout, Globe disclosed that it has already invested around $400 million to $500 million. It has actually started WiMax trials in 2005 and the network rollout began in 2008. The service itself has been commercially available since February 2009.

WiMax or Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access enables the deployment of high-speed broadband access in a more cost-efficient way as it can cover bigger areas than those covered by Wi-Fi, CDMA or 3G without the need for cables.

Globe said this allowed them to offer the most affordable and relevant packages for its intended market.

A basic subscription for Internet access can only be had for as low as P795 with speed of up to 512 Kbps, while a higher plan with speed of up to 1 Mbps is available for P995. Internet service bundled with a landline is also available.

Santos said the subscription plans come with a minimum guarantee for speed and consistency, and each plan comes with a stylish designer modem with easy plug-and-play feature that would look nice as an accent to a stylish home or office.

Although noncommittal on the deployment of a nomadic WiMax service, Globe maintains that it remains the most powerful broadband network in the country, with other offerings like Globe Tattoo, its own mobile broadband brand powered by HSPA.

The company acknowledges though that the nomadic and mobile broadband has huge potential, with the market size forecast to reach five million users by 2012, and the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) through 2012 estimated to reach 95 percent.

More than any other country, Santos said the country has more need to communicate, with 42 percent of families having overseas workers.

In fact, total telecom spending as a percentage of income is pegged at eight percent, or almost double the amount in other countries. This means that the average Filipino household is willing to spend money on reliable Internet access.

Moreover, of the country’s 89.65 million population, the median age is 22.3 years, comprising heavy users of the Internet.

Globe’s dream of connecting more households to the Internet via WiMax is anchored on the fact that as an archipelago, the cost to deploy wired access in the Philippines is prohibitive, with just 25 percent of the country with copper, so wireless is the way to go.

This, however, should be balanced with a pricing scheme that would make the wireless broadband service more affordable to the majority.