Globe Telecom of the Philippines says it has struck a deal with the city governments of Cebu and Manduae to deploy fibre facilities in the two cities. Works are said to be already underway in Mandaue, with plans to roll out 18 ‘Globe-at-Home’ fibre sites in Cebu in due course. Earlier this year, the telco unveiled plans to commission around 400,000 broadband lines countrywide by the end of this year. In addition, it continues to strengthen its mobile network in the province, having installed close to 600 4G LTE sites to date.
Meanwhile, rival PLDT Inc. has extended the reach of its fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network to parts of east Metro Manila, deploying more than 70,000 new lines in Antipolo, Caloocan, Cainta, Marikina, Pasig, Pateros, Taguig and Taytay. The telco’s ‘Home Fibr’ services in east Metro Manila will also include access to its new streaming platform, Roku, it says, which comprises TV content and films from more than 100 popular channels including Netflix, iflix and YouTube.
As previously reported by TeleGeography’s CommsUpdate, last month PLDT announced it had extended its FTTHfootprint in southern Metro Manila, targeting new areas and enabling 300,000 homes in the region to access super-high speed internet access, whilst aiming to benefit the area’s rapidly growing commercial district Prices for PLDT’s fibre internet packages start from PHP1,899 (USD38.2).
The latest expansion forms part of PLDT’s ongoing nationwide fibre-optic rollout programme, under which it has already set up a number of so-called ‘PLDT Smart City’ areas starting with Toledo City in Cebu, followed by General Santos in Mindanao and Naga City in the Bicol region. The telco intends to continue its rollout programme to reach a total of 4.4 million homes passed by the end of 2017, up from three million homes passed at end-March this year.