Globe’s $700-M transformation 60% complete

MANILA, Philippines - Ayala-controlled Globe Telecom Inc. has completed about 60 percent of its massive $700-million network transformation project and expects to finish the upgrade in the central business district in Makati City by next month.

Gil Genio, head of international and business markets of Globe, said in a press conference that the transformation project would benefit consumers and subscribers through lower incidence of dropped calls, faster call connection, and better speech quality.

 “The brand new Globe network is almost 60 percent done and will augur well for companies and enterprises being served by Globe Business,” Genio stressed.

After completing the transformation in Makati within the next two weeks, he said the company would then pursue the upgrade in South Manila that includes Pasay, Taguig, Paranaque, Muntinlupa, Las Pinas, among others.

By the end of the year, he pointed out that more than 70 percent of the transformation project nationwide would be completed and the entire upgrade finished early next year.

For his part, Globe Business head Jesus Romero told participants of 3rd Enterprise Innovation Forum with a theme of “Revolutionizing Business Today” that the telco provider is transforming and not only upgrading its entire network nationwide.

Romero said the project would help triple the number of its 3G cellular sites all over the country and add an additional 12,000 kilometers of fiber optic cable.

He explained that the company first completes the transformation of its network in a specific area before shifting to the new network from the old network to be able to see the difference.

 “Today we are still using the old network,” he stressed.

However, Romero pointed out that the telco provider has noted an improved call setup time in the National Capital Region (NCR), North Luzon, South Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.

He added that Globe also noted lower dropped calls in NCR with 1.67 percent, North Luzon with 1.17 percent, South Luzon with 1.23 percent, Cebu with 0.85 percent, and Davao with 1.36 percent.

 “Our results are showing way better results than the requirement of the National Telecommunications Commission or NTC,” he said.

Once completed by the first quarter of next year, Romero said the capacity of its short messaging system (SMS) would be four times the current capacity.

The program covers the relocation of sites, repositioning of antennas new antenna system, laying down 12,000 kilometers of fiber optic cable as well as increasing the number of cell sites covering both 3G and 4G.

 “The company is one which thrives through innovation as evident with its initiatives on transforming itself with massive investments on its network, information technology infrastructure, customer support systems, and its people,” Globe president Ernest Cu said.

Both Globe and PLDT’s Smart Communications Inc. failed to meet the regulatory standards for service quality of the NTC in the second quarter of the year.

Globe and Smart did not pass the standard for Grade of Service of four percent set by the NTC as seen in the second quarter Quality of Service Benchmarking Conducted on Mobile Network Service Providers released by the agency yesterday.

The monitoring showed that Smart scored 9.95 percent while Globe had 4.45 percent. The monitoring teams simultaneously initiated a total of 1,506 on-net calls per network for Globe and Smart.