Globe Telecom adds 2,000 more 3G, WiMAX sites in the Philippines

Globe Telecom, the Philippines' number two telco, announced its plan yesterday to add 2,000 additional sites for 3G and WiMAX in 2010. Gil B. Genio, chief of business and carrier services, told reporters about his company's plan to add 1,000 new sites and upgrade 1,000 existing sites to handle increased demand.

Specifically,the WiMAX sites would primarily be located in urban areas where data transfer is most in demand. 3G sites will be added in both urban and rural areas because "3G is also used to call and text, not just send data."

To increase speed and capacity of Globe Telecom's networks, Genio said it has invested $60 million in the new Southeast Asia Japan Cable (SJC) system. SJC is owned by a conglomerate of telco and technology firms in Southeast Asia and the Pacific including Globe Telecom, Google, KDDI Japan, Network i2I of India, Reliance Globalcom of Bermuda, Telemedia Pacific Inc., Ltd., of Hong Kong, SingTel of Singapore, and PT Telekomunikasi International of Indonesia.

"The SJC can bring more capacity," says Genio. "In fact it would be seven times more than the capacity three years ago, which was less than one gigabyte."

Globe Telecom saw its broadband revenue increase by 69% in the third quarter, up from P1.3 million to P2.2 million. Net income in the nine-month period ending September rose 12% from the previous year to P9.9 billion.