Globe broadband upgrades to 5G next year

MANILA, Philippines — Ayala-led Globe Telecom Inc. is leading the adoption of 5G (fifth-generation) wireless technology in the country by making the first 5G home broadband service available by the second quarter of next year.

Globe president and chief executive officer Ernest Cu said the telco is bringing the 5G technology in line with the aim to improve the state of the internet services in the country.

“We have been preparing our network for sometime now with our existing vendor partners, including Huawei Technologies. We are happy to bring the Philippines in line with other countries that are early adopters of 5G. Once again, we stay true to our commitment to bring first-world internet in the country,“ Cu said.

Asked how much investment is being made for the 5G service, he said Globe has yet to set an amount, but anticipates some of the spending for 4G would move to 5G.

The 5G network will provide higher speeds, lower latency and better capacity.

For Globe, the 5G technology would enable the telco to deploy fixed wireless broadband at a fiber speed.

“Air fiber internet, which makes use of fixed location wireless radios instead of fiber, could provide speeds ranging from 50 Mbps to 100 Mbps,” Cu said.

In addition, 5G technology would allow Globe to go over the circuitous approval process of deploying a fiber optic cable, which involves securing multiple permits from local government units.

“We can bring internet to more homes by deploying 5G compared to a typical fiber optic rollout,” Cu said.

Earlier, Globe announced it is enabling the network to support the emerging internet of things (IoT) through the pilot of the narrow band (NB)-IoT technology and use of spectrum assets, particularly the 700 Megahertz band.

NB-IoT is one of the three standards-based low power wide area technologies developed to enable a wide range of new IoT devices and services.

Globe has also deployed the massive MIMO (multiple input, multiple output) technology, a fundamental radio access technology for 5G.

Through MIMO technology, a mobile network can increase the capacity of a wireless connection and accommodate more users even without additional antennas.

Over 31 percent of Globe’s annual total revenue is being spent to upgrade and expand the telecommunication and information technology infrastructure.