Globe looking at satellite broadband for remote areas

Telco giant Globe Telecom is looking at satellite internet services to cover remote areas in the country.

Globe said in a statement it was working with US-based Curvalux, the company behind the CurvaNet satellite constellation project.

CurvaNet will have 240 low earth orbit satellites providing high-speed and affordable broadband around the world.

“The CurvaNet satellite constellation will be able to deliver affordable broadband internet to even the most remote areas beyond the reach of any telecom towers, infrastructure or electricity with the use of its proprietary low-cost, solar powered customer terminal,” Globe said.

Globe said it was also tapping Curvalux’s broadband wireless technology for its ongoing network upgrade.

It said the American company’s patented “phased array multibeam broadband system” provided better coverage, was more cost efficient and can run on solar panels and batteries.

“This dramatically reduces operational costs and enables deployment of the system to remote areas that were previously unserved due to the lack of a reliable power source,” Globe said.

Globe and Curvalux have been working on this end-to-end solution for the past year and a half.

“This technology enriches Globe’s internet solutions portfolio, allowing us to cover as many households as possible, and helps provide low cost internet in hard-to-reach areas which are currently deprived of connectivity,” Darius Delgado, Globe’s head of broadband business, said in a statement.

“Our partnership with Curvalux will allow faster deployment of high-speed broadband to our customers ranging from 50 to 120 Mbps [megabits per second] average download speeds,” he added.

Globe will initially deploy Curvalux’s solutions in 39 areas in the country and up to 315 more areas within the year.