MANILA, Philippines — Ayala-led Globe Telecom Inc. continued to expand its Long Term Evolution (LTE) service to 934 new sites in the first quarter of the year.
In a statement, Globe said it expanded the availability of the LTE service in 934 new locations using the following frequencies: 700 Megahertz (MHz), 2600 MHz and 1800 MHz.
The new locations include Jolo, Tawi-Tawi and Batanes.
Joel Agustin, Globe senior vice president for program governance of the network technical group said the telco plans to make LTE available in more areas given the growing demand for mobile data.
“We are expanding our deployment of LTE sites including the far-flung areas like Jolo, Tawi-Tawi and Batanes making our total sites now close to 11,300,” he said.
Greater LTE coverage would also mean improved quality of service for Globe customers.
As of end-2017, Globe had a total of 10,300 LTE base stations as it continued the aggressive deployment of LTE sites using the 700MHz, 1800 MHz and 2600 MHz frequencies.
Using the 2600 MHz, Globe also fired up almost 200 massive MIMO (multiple input, multiple output) sites.
Through MIMO technology, a mobile network can increase the capacity of a wireless connection and accommodate more users even without additional antennas.
Massive MIMO is also fundamental radio access technology for 5G, the next step in mobile technology after LTE.
The 5G network targets higher speeds, lower latency and better capacity, and is expected to open new opportunities.