Globe targets to roll out 5G Globe At Home Broadband plans by 2019. Globe Chief Technology and Information Officer Gil Genio (left) and Huawei Southern Pacific Region Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer Lim Chee Siong (right) join Globe President and CEO Ernest Cu (middle) in this major announcement.
Globe Telecom formally announced its fifth-generation (5G) wireless technology adoption in the Philippines, with the first 5G Globe At Home service to be commercially available by the second quarter of 2019.
The 5G network will boast of higher speeds, lower latency, and better capacity to enable Globe to deploy fixed wireless broadband at a fiber speed.
Globe President and CEO Ernest Cu said the 5G technology would enable Globe to use Air Fiber technology in relation to deployment of fixed wireless broadband that would benefit individual customers at home and business clients alike. “Air Fiber internet, which makes use of fixed lo-cation wireless radios instead of fiber, could provide speeds ranging from 50 Mbps to 100 Mbps,” Cu added.
Globe will start rolling out 5G services commercially in the Philippines mid-2019. The technology will also enable the company to go over the circuitous approval process of dep-loying a fiber optic cable, which involves multiple permits from local government units. The right of process can sometimes take years to obtain delaying fiber optic roll-out completion. The 5G technology is expected to accelerate the adoption of Internet of Things (IoT) in the country. Globe earlier announced said it is enabling its network by utilizing its spectrum assets particularly the 700-megahertz band.
Globe is currently piloting Narrow Band- Internet of Things technology while enhanc-ing its mobile data services. Due to its inherent advantage of long reach, this spectrum is ideal to support NB-IoT services. NB-IoT is one of the three 3GPP standards-based low power wide area technologies developed to enable a wide range of new IoT devices and services. NB-IoT, as a standard, is more developed as compared to other defined 3GPP standards. Globe and Huawei are collaborating in this journey. The Globe network has one of the largest deployment of Massive MIMO in Asia as part of its strategic technology roadmap since 2016. MM is the fundamental radio access technology for 5G.
Globe has been spending over 31% of its annual total revenues to upgrade and expand its tele-communication and IT infrastructure. Back in November 2015, Globe extended its partnership with Huawei, signing a five-year con-tract involving the planning and design of a wireless broadband network, and creating a wireless innovation center. Huawei was also the technology partner of Globe that began in 2011.