Globe Telecom Inc. said on Thursday it has built 220 new cell towers, upgraded more than 3,000 mobile sites to 4G, and deployed around 118,000 fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) lines in the first quarter.
This feat, according to Globe President Ernest Cu, will help the company “meet the dynamic and evolving needs of its customers.”
However, Cu noted that the company will be focusing on “operational efficiency and sustainability of its free cash flow generation.”
Globe has reduced capital spending this year to $1.3 billion from $1.9 billion in 2022.
In the first quarter, the telco spent P17.6 billion from its outlay program, a 16-percent reduction versus the year prior.
“Our focus this year is to ensure that we sustain the quality of experience, reliability and consistency of our network. Adding to this is using automation to bring down our operating costs. We have also optimized our infrastructure on the ground to decrease capex spend, even as we remain committed to continuously improve our services,” Cu said.
For her part, Globe Chief Customer Experience Officer and Head, Strategy Management Rebecca Eclipse said: “The continued advancement of technology to deliver better service performance and improved network efficiencies allows Globe to remain focused on improving connectivity across the nation, service availability, and customer experience.”
Globe emerged as the most reliable and consistent network in the first quarter, maintaining its status as the “Most Reliable Mobile Network in the Philippines” for the fourth consecutive quarter, according to Ookla. It also achieved the highest All Technology Consistency Score of 83.39 percent in the first quarter.
Globe expects its core business to post “mid-single digit” growth this year, “despite the major macroeconomic headwinds” that it forecasts in 2023.
In the first quarter, Globe saw its net income decline by 47 percent to P7.3 billion from P13.7 billion, largely because of the one-time gain it posted the year prior from the sale of its data center.
The company’s core net income was flat at P5.1 billion.
