Globe Telecom plans to employ new mobile technology

CEBU, Philippines - Globe Telecom announced its plan to take advantage of the use of Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology.

LTE is a high-performance air interface for cellular mobile technology. After 2G and 3G, LTE is the next frontier in radio technologies designed to increase the capacity and speed of mobile telephone networks.

It addresses the demand for higher data rates and increased quality of service and enables users to experience the fastest mobile broadband service up to 100 MBPS.

Recently, the company successfully conducted laboratory and field testing of LTE technology.

Globe began the trial of LTE technology early this year in partnership with NEC Corporation. Following the lab tests in May at the Globe 3G LTE test bed at the Valero Technopark in Makati, Globe and NEC conducted field trials in Quezon City as part of Phase 1 of this project.

The Phase 1 field trial verified a variety of LTE functions such as quality of service; latency and hand-over within urban areas were tested as these are required for commercial use of the technology. The trial achieved up to 60Mbps downlink data throughout rate at 10MHz bandwidth.

“As part of our thrust to provide superior customer experience, Globe sustains its network build up and continues to look out for latest mobile technologies that will benefit the Philippine market. We continuously monitor technology developments and innovations around the world that will help improve the quality of experience and introduce new services of value for our customers,” said Emmanuel R. Estrada, Network Technologies Strategy Head of Globe Telecom.

“As we see mobile broadband growing and more subscribers clamoring for faster and higher bandwidths, LTE will help us meet the customers’ demand and further improve our broadband service offering in the near future,” he added.

Estrada emphasized that LTE will not only make existing mobile phone applications run faster, but will pave the way for new functions that were previously available only on a wired internet connection. “With LTE, multimedia content and applications would be available anytime, anywhere.”

Globe continues to expand and upgrade its broadband network to bring better internet services to customers.

As of end September 2010, the broadband subscriber base of Globe grew by 95 percent to reach 1,006,460, nearly double the 517,355 broadband subscribers reported in the same period last year.

As a pioneer in information and communications technologies, Globe is bent on deploying future technologies for use of Filipino customers such as LTE.

The trials will take about six to nine months to fully appreciate what the new technology brings to the market and determine the best approach and strategy for its adoption locally.

The LTE trial of Globe is in conjunction with the Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) Group, one of the company’s principals, who has spearheaded efforts for regional and coordinated LTE trials across affiliates in Singapore, Australia, Indonesia and the Philippines.

The results of the trials, which will be shared among SingTel's wholly-owned subsidiary in Australia, Optus, and other SingTel associates, namely Telkomsel in Indonesia, AIS in Thailand, Bharti Airtel in India, PBTL in Bangladesh, and Warid in Pakistan, will help better understand LTE and determine the best approach and strategy for its adoption in their respective local markets.

The trials will also lay the groundwork to establish a regionally-compatible LTE network to facilitate growth in the mobile broadband business for the SingTel Group. – THE FREEMAN