Globe Telecom Inc. is planning to roll out a million fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) lines this year, as part of its P70 billion in capital expenditures for 2021.
In a statement on Friday, the company said that FTTH lines will be deployed to meet rising demand for faster internet services as people continue work from home during the lockdown. All of Globe’s remaining copper lines will be upgraded to fiber.
Fiber connection improves speed to 1 Gbps (Gigabits per second) compared to the copper line’s 15 Mbps (Megabits per second) maximum speed.
“Unlike traditional copper cables which suffer from huge data signal loss over long distances, fiber only registers slight data signal degradation,” Globe said.
The telco said that it has been reaching out to Globe At Home customers connected to old facilities and plans to upgrade their lines for free. Modems will also be upgraded.
“Having a high-speed and reliable internet connection is now a necessity given the pandemic’s impact on our daily lives, which is why we are working nonstop to upgrade existing connections to fiber,” Globe Vice President and Head of Broadband Business Darius Delgado said.
Philippine mobile network performance declined in March, with average download speed falling to 25.43 Mbps from 26.24 Mbps recorded a month earlier, the Speedtest Global Index compiled by US internet testing and analysis company Ookla said. — Jenina P. Ibanez