Globe Telecom Inc. plans to build more telco towers this year, as it aggressively expands its network to further improve its services amid the growing demand for data connectivity in the Philippines.
Rizza Maniego-Eala, the CFO of Globe, said in a press briefing her group is working with more than a dozen tower companies for its infrastructure thrust this year, targeting to build more than 1,200 telco towers in 2022.
“We are working with various tower companies for build-to-suit arrangements. We have 13 tower companies as vendors,” she said. “Last year, we built over 1,200 towers and our plan is to be roughly in the same level this year.”
Globe has set a P89-billion capital expenditures (capex) program for 2022 to bankroll the construction of more cell sites, upgrade existing ones, deploy 4G and 5G radios, and add more fiber lines across the country.
Ernest Cu, the company’s president, noted that one of Globe’s wishlist to the next government is for it to continue the policy on ease of doing business as well as its anti-red tape initiatives to facilitate faster infrastructure builds.
Last year, Globe aggressively expanded its fixed line and wireless networks, building 1,407 new cell sites, upgraded over 22,300 mobile sites, installed more than 2,000 5G radios, and installed 1.4 million fiber-to-the-home lines.
These network enhancements allowed Globe to grow its full-year revenues by 4 percent to P151.5 billion, which drove core profits by 9 percent to P21.2 billion.
Eala noted that Globe’s revenue guidance for the year remains to be “low single-digit,” given the reconstruction efforts needed in the Visayas region due to the devastation caused by Typhoon Odette and the prolonged effects of the pandemic on its workforce.