Globe sets USD850-M capex for 2018

The Globe Telecom Tower at 32nd Street in Bonifacio Global City, Metro Manila, Philippines (Photo by Hans Olav Lien – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0)

MANILA — Globe Telecom will be allocating USD850 million for its capital expenditure this year as it continues to expand its data network amid the rising demand for mobile data services and online streaming content.

The financing is in line with its vision to improve internet services in the country and its goal of having “first world connectivity”.

“Majority of the company’s capex for 2018 is geared to meet customer demand for more bandwidth-intensive content, which, in turn, will support the revenue momentum of our data-related services”, Globe President and CEO Ernest Cu said in a statement Friday.

Globe’s capital spending for the year will be utilized for the expansion of its LTE network through deployment of MIMO technology, which enables a mobile network to multiply the capacity of a wireless connection ensuring reliable data connection as more subscribers use video streaming services.

“We continue to be efficient in our network build, evidenced by the superiority of our mobile network, in terms of higher 3G and LTE availability both on a regional and nationwide basis,” Cu said.

From January to September last year, Globe Telecom’s data-related revenues accounted for more than 53 percent of the company’s topline for the period.

Data-related revenues totaled nearly PHP51 billion against total service revenues of PHP95.1 billion, a 6 percent increase from a year earlier, backed by the robust growth in its mobile data revenues.