Globe Telecom Capex touches ₱65.4 bn during Jan-Sept

Globe Telecom said capital expenditure reached ₱65.4 billion during January-September 2021, focusing on building of data networks.
Globe Telecom network campaign
Full-year Capex of Globe Telecom had touched ₱60.3 billion in 2020.

This capex spending represents 58 percent of gross service revenues and 115 percent of EBITDA, Globe Telecom said. Majority or about 84 percent of the capex spent went to data network builds to boost mobile and internet experiences.

Globe Telecom said it has 1,080 new cell sites, and upgraded at least 12.9 thousand sites including both 4G LTE and 5G for the first nine months of 2021. Globe completed 73 in-building solutions or IBS to provide quality indoor coverage to customers for better mobile signals.

Globe installed over one million fiber-to-the-home lines, which already surpassed this year’s full-year target. Globe is expecting to roll out 1.4 million FTTH lines by year-end.

The recent report of Ookla showed that Globe was able to maintain a mobile consistency score of 81.99 percent in the National Capital Region and 76 percent nationwide making it at par with global benchmarks such as, T-Mobile in the United States with 84.8 percent; Videotron in Canada with 87.4 percent; Telekom in Germany with 90.1 percent.

Globe’s 5G outdoor coverage in the National Capital Region has reached 95 percent and is present in over 1,900 locations in the country as of end-September this year.

Globe was recently recognized in Opensignal’s 5G Global Impact awards for 2021, winning awards in all categories: No. 1 in the Games Experience category with an uplift of 65.2 percent over 4G vs. 8.2 percent global average improvement; No. 2 in Video Experience, with its users reporting a better streaming experience of 32.8 percent with 5G vs. 8.8 percent global average improvement; and, One of the top 10 operators globally for both Download (improvement of 774.4 percent) and Upload Speed (improvement of 200.7 percent).

Globe reported service revenues of ₱113.6 billion (+4 percent) in the first nine month of the year driven by rising data consumption and broadband usage in the country. Total data revenues accounted for 80 percent of total service revenues from 76 percent last year.

Mobile data revenues posted ₱57.9 billion for the first nine months from ₱53.7 billion reported a year ago. Mobile data accounts for 74 percent of mobile revenues from 69 percent in the first nine months of 2020. Mobile voice and mobile SMS revenues ended at ₱13.3 billion and ₱7.2 billion, lower year-on-year by 14 percent and 17 percent, respectively.

Home broadband revenues posted ₱22.4 billion (+15 percent). The fiber rollout resulted into increased take up of FTTH lines of 240 percent and fiber revenues growing by 169 percent. Total Home broadband subscriber base rose from 3.5 million to 3.7 million, with the wired broadband customer base growing by 32 percent.

“Buoyed by the success of Mynt’s latest funding round, we believe that our strategy to use the telco business as a platform to become a digital solutions group by exploring adjacencies in high-growth areas will pave the way for us to become a leader in the digital space,” Ernest L. Cu, Globe President and CEO, said.