MANILA, Philippines – Sitting next to Globe Telecom president and CEO Ernest Cu over lunch will give you insights into and interesting trivia about the telco industry — like why traffic on EDSA also slows down your online experience (people stuck in traffic are all go online hence the network congestion), how much investment Globe has put into its infrastructure (US$850 in 2015 and a little bit more in 2016), and why you may not have signal at home (some private subdivisions block the building of cell sites).
The occasion was the launching of Tessa Prieto-Valdes as the new Globe Platinum endorser, which was held in her brightly decorated home filled with old-style parols.
“I’m still very new with Globe and I haven’t yet begun abusing my Platinum manager,” Tessa jokes. “I’m glad they gave me the biggest, toughest guy because I have a crazy schedule.”
Cu says, “We wanted someone who epitomizes the Platinum lifestyle and Tessa is very discerning about services. I’ve known her for many years, and her husband and I went to the same business school, and we see each other a lot in social activities. I’ve always found her to be the kind of customer who would really benefit from Globe Platinum. If we can satisfy someone like her, I think we’ll be able to satisfy most people.”
I’m one of those “most people.” I’ve been a Globe subscriber for probably over 15 years and my current Platinum manager, Joseph Tacan, is fantastic. Whenever I am traveling abroad and experience “no signal,” I just email him and he responds right away. And when it was time to get my loyalty reward phone, he met me with his laptop to transfer everything from my old phone.
Cu says subscribers can now expect more and better services from their Platinum subscription.
Excerpts:
PHILIPPINE STAR: Are you re-launching the Platinum service of Globe?
ERNEST CU: We’ve refreshed a lot of the services to make it more relevant to today’s luxury lifestyle. We added services in relation to international travel because most Filipinos now are into it more than before. Our data roaming, for P599 a day, is one of the best around; we have 600 roaming partners in 117 countries. We wanted to make it seamless and worry free — just use and it’s automatic for 24 hours and then it gets renewed.
That’s great because people want to post pictures on Instagram and Facebook while they’re traveling.
Kahit anong mangyayari it’s only P599. Not only that, but abroad they use data for maps, restaurants, Tripadvisor. I cannot live without data.
Are you in all the countries Globe is in?
We’re in 117 of the most highly travelled countries by Filipinos because we have to negotiate each one.
Is your postpaid market bigger than prepaid?
No, but the number is growing — everything is! Our postpaid business is 40 percent of our revenue but it’s only five percent of our subscribers. Total postpaid is about 2.7 million, the rest of the 50 million or so are prepaid. Revenue-wise postpaid accounts for 40 percent because we have the high-value subscribers.
My Platinum account manager is really good at handling problems.
That’s how we try to differentiate ourselves. At the end of the day, what we sell may also be offered by our competitors so we differentiate it through the service — we focus on our account managers’ training. They have empathy, they are dressed properly when they come to you for a meeting.
One of the rewards I like about the Platinum plan is the miles.
Oh yeah, and we also have perks like concert tickets and backstage passes.
What’s the big picture for Globe in 2016?
It will be more about enhancing our customers’ mobile data experience. We’re going to be expanding our presence in the country. Like in Forbes, the fiber layout is here and we’re going to roll out a much larger footprint to enable a digital lifestyle. Nung araw people were happy with 1MBPS or two, ngayon hindi na, they want 20, 50 to hundred.
I have a flash drive the size and literally the shape of a key and it holds 16 gigabytes. My hard drive in the ‘90s was like 120 megabytes.
I started with 20 megabytes (laughs).
When did the spike for data happen and what was the percentage? Is it more data now than calls?
Let’s put it this way, the calls and SMS for Globe are no longer growing — or a very small growth but it’s not declining, it’s plateaued. Our mobile data revenues are up 60 to 70 percent per year. Traffic is up 150 to 200 percent, that’s why the demand on the network is huge.
When did this start?
About two years ago.
Is it because almost everybody now has a smartphone?
For Globe it’s 40 percent overall, and for our postpaid it’s almost a hundred percent.
I read a study that if Filipinos leave their wallet at home, they’re not going to go back for it. But if they leave their cellphone, they will. Which means they would rather be caught driving without a license than be without a phone for the day.
That’s why we’ve put money on your phone with GCash. It’s an app with mobile money in it. With GCash, we have about a million active users right now and it’s growing in popularity. The card is attached to your GCash wallet and it’s a MasterCard debit card and an ATM card. We have a version that’s tap and go and you can use it on the MRT. Now we’ve even enabled merchants in, say, bazaars to accept it from your phone.
You can also have virtual GCash for which we’ve partnered with American Express. There is no physical card but you can use it to shop online. I use mine regularly to buy on sites like Amazon.
What time is the highest traffic for Globe?
Before, because of texting and calling, traffic was during Christmas and Mother’s Day, but now it’s no longer that extreme. Today, the high traffic is when people are at home.
What about rush hour?
Traffic for us is a problem because when you’re in traffic what do you do? You surf online. When we built the network for EDSA, it was built for flowing traffic, which means people are probably sleeping in the car or driving. But with EDSA the way it is now, it’s like a huge parking lot. So when they stop, what do people do? They surf. I guess the people who own cars are Globe subscribers. When you have four people in a car, they are surfing all the time so congestion occurs.
So during the day your highest traffic is during rush hour?
No, after rush hour, it begins about 7 or 8 for data.
Speaking of network, is your infrastructure on track with the growing demand?
I think we are a little bit behind because we built this thinking it will last five years.
Ilan pala?
Three. We’re spending about US$850 million for the network this year and spending a little more than that next year.
Is it going to reach $1 billion?
It may (laughs), that’s why our business is crazy. It requires very heavy investment. The telco industry does so much infrastructure development relative to other industries — it’s like building how many power plants every year.
The demand is just so high then?
You hear people saying, ‘Why don’t we have signal?’ You know what, it’s not that I don’t want to put a cell site there, it’s that I have no cell site location, I have no permit, or someone is blocking it. Like here, it took us forever to put a cell site.
Are you saying some private subdivisions block it?
Yes, because they’re supposedly worried about their health.
So let’s answer that — is there something to be worried about?
My opinion is none, the reason being if you look at the most developed countries in the world that have so much health concerns, they have not banned cell phones. Australia and the Scandinavian countries, they are so concerned about health, quality of life and the environment — have they banned cell sites? No.