Globe has 1,080 new cell sites in 9 months, up from last year

MANILA, Philippines — Globe Telecom Inc. built 1,080 new cell sites in the first nine months, surpassing last year’s number in a bid to improve its service.

That figure was 82% higher than 593 cell towers that the company built in the same period last year, the Ayala-led service provider said in a statement on Wednesday.

Broken down, most of the newly-erected cell towers during the 9-month period are located in Metro Manila with 340 new cell sites and in North Luzon with 230. At least 100 or more cell towers were put up in South Visayas and Mindanao.

“The installation of new cell towers will greatly decongest traffic in our existing towers,” Joel Agustin, company senior vice president, said.

“By building more cell sites, while modernizing the existing ones to 4G LTE, we will ensure to meet the demand for better and accessible connectivity for our customers in more parts of the country,” Agustin added.

The country's sloppy telco connection has always been a problem. Apart from a new service provider, the government, through a relatively new ICT department, has adopted a common tower policy, a program meant to increase the number of cellular sites in the archipelago to catch up with rising demand for network services.

As of 2020, Statista, a data provider, put the number of local cell sites at around 22,800 shared by roughly 149 million mobile subscribers. Statista reported that majority of these towers were built by Globe.  

More cell towers are being constructed after the government eased the processing of telco companies’ application for building permits. Apart from new cell sites, Globe said it also completed 73 in-building solutions or IBS from January to September this year. IBS is essential to provide quality indoor coverage to customers.