Globe sees strong demand for data, home broadband

MANILA, Philippines — Globe Telecom Inc. expects sustained strong demand for data and home broadband will help the company weather the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Globe said it remains optimistic the strong data demand would continue for the rest of the year as more sectors embrace the “new normal.”

“Data continues to be a bright spot for business, as demand remains strong and steadily growing,” Globe president and CEO Ernest Cu said.

“Especially at this time of pandemic, internet access serves as a lifeline for many Filipinos. People use the internet to do work from home, conduct business, make payments, and homeschooling, among others. We expect this trend to continue until the rest of the year,” Cu said.

Cu said Globe is also bullish on the potential of its home broadband business.

“The potential of home broadband remains a source of inspiration for us. This segment is largely untapped so there are a lot of households that are looking to be connected. We hope to fill this demand with our aggressive network roll out in the second half not only in urban areas, but even in provinces all over the country,” he said.

Globe’s mobile data revenues reached P35.8 billion in the first half as mobile data traffic soared by 45 percent year-on-year to 1,106 petabytes.

The Ayala-led telco attributed the increase to more customers spending time online, whether because of work at home schemes or simply using the internet for business, entertainment and online learning.

The company said its home broadband business also boosted efforts to absorb the impact of the pandemic in the first half with revenues amounting to P12.5 billion.

Globe’s home broadband subscriber base stood at nearly 2.9 million as of end June.

Globe expects the number to continue growing as more households gear up for working and learning from home as public schools reopen in October.