Globe board OKs $300-M capital spending hike

Telecom giant Globe Telecom got final approval to increase capital spending this year, with funds to be mainly used in deploying frequency it gained access to following the acquisition of San Miguel Corp.’s telecommunications unit last year.

Globe said in a stock exchange filing Thursday that its board approved a $300- million capital spending increase, which would bring its total spending this year to $1 billion.

Globe said $160 million of the added budget was earmarked for mobile; $50 million for corporate data, and $90 million for broadband. Globe had originally programmed capital spending this year at $750 million. It added that the capex-cashflow would range from $750 million to $810 million, depending on the final network buildup completion in the fourth quarter of this year.

“We are leveraging our additional 700MHz (Megahertz) and 2600Mhz spectrum by investing heavily in LTE to improve both mobile data and fixed wireless broadband,” Globe CEO Ernest Cu said. “The company is now in the best position more than ever to deliver the best video platforms and expand our data services, in line with the future of our business.”

Globe got access to added telecommunication frequencies after acquiring the telco unit of San Miguel Corp. on May 30. This was done jointly with main rival PLDT Inc.

In the statement, Globe said it was planning to roll out additional 700 LTE 700 sites, close to 2,700 LTE 2600 sites and additional core and transport upgrades.

In parallel, Globe started the deployment of fiber broadband technology that would provide “ultra-fast internet access” to two million homes in 20,000 barangays by 2020.

Globe is also investing in so-called capacity augmentation of its corporate data network to address the bandwidth requirements of enterprise clients.

Data has remained Globe’s main driver for growth across all the product segments.

For the first half of 2016, the company’s data-related revenues accounted for 50 percent of consolidated service revenues, up from 37 percent in the first half of last year.

Total data revenue, which consist of mobile data, home broadband and corporate data services, reached P29.6 billion in the first six months of the year, up 48 percent from the P20 billion reported last year.