The Philippines' Globe Telecom has announced it is on track to reach its target of extending LTE coverage to 95% of cities and municipalities in the nation by the end of the year.
The operator reached a roughly 90% coverage of cities and municipalities at the end of September, and had deployed nearly 12,000 LTE cell sites as of the third quarter.
Globe committed to extending LTE coverage to 95% of cities and municipalities when it teamed up with rival PLDT to secure approval from regulator NTC to jointly acquire the spectrum assets previously held by conglomerate San Miguel Corporation.
These assets included spectrum in the prized 700-MHz band, as well as the 2600-MHz and other bands.
According to Globe, nearly 3,000 of the 12,000 LTE sites support the 700-MHz band, and over 3,700 support the 2600-MHz band.
Around half of the new cell sites deployed in 2018 are in the Greater Manila region, 35% are in North and South Luzon and 15% are in Visayas and Mindanao.
“The new spectrum assets enabled Globe to fast-track the rollout of LTE service nationwide,” commented Joel Agustin, SVP for program governance at Globe's Network Technical Group.
“We are confident that more and more Filipinos will experience improved internet services as adoption of LTE-capable devices increases and as we continue to deploy LTE coverage in more cities and municipalities.”