Globe’s Binondo initiative

Globe Telecom’s Binondo initiative reflects the company’s innovative focus on its business game, the reason it continues to be viewed with enthusiasm by market analysts. That Binondo initiative, whereby the Ayala-led company is leading off its nationwide fiber broadband technology roll-out in Binondo, the heart of Chinatown in the metropolis, shows a compelling business narrative about Globe’s future. 

The announcement by Globe Telecom last week about the installation of its fiber optics in Binondo shows a remarkable grasp at the business dynamics in that place.

By initiating its attempt to roll out a new broadband technology in the country in Chinatown just goes to show that it has seen a remarkable rise in the business dynamics in Binondo that could profit from the ultra fast Internet that would arise with the fiber optics roll-out.

Globe has displayed an uncanny eye for driving up its business, especially with the galloping surge in retail and residential as well as commercial and industrial floor spaces in Binondo, which would have need for the fast Internet to sustain the businesses. For Globe to start in Chinatown, the oldest in the world when it comes to those Chinese business enclaves, means that it would have an enviable place for ensuring the rise in its client base.

Binondo, which was established by Dominican friars in 1594, is flexing anew its business muscles with top companies like Megaworld Corp. establishing a presence. There is a construction boom in the place, with ritzy condominiums and business establishments being put up , aside from various malls that jostle for business together with sidewalk vendors selling exotic fruits and old establishments peddling jewelries.

A swing through Ongpin Street, its central thoroughfare, shows old buildings being demolished and in their places are high-rise edifices with some having both commercial and residential towers aside from a hotel complex within the vicinity. What does this mean if not a drive up in client base within the area. Two old cinema houses have been given way to high-class condominiums along Ongpin.

About 200 meters from the Binondo church, now known as the Minor Basilica of St Lorenzo Ruiz, is a massive development along Reina Regente: the Lucky Chinatown mall where fine dining places compete with the Divisoria goodies in 999 and 168 mall. For Globe Chief Commercial Officer Albert de Larrazabal, the fiberization of the entire Binondo district, an age-old center of commercial activities in the capital, would benefit business and residential establishments in the area and is expected to drive business growth in the district. The project will be completed in the third quarter of the year.

In its press launch announcing what I term as the Binondo initiative, Larrazabal said that “Globe is willing to spend to speed up the Internet infrastructure in the country. But we need support from the government, particularly the LGUs.” The Globe official has pointed out to the bureaucracy attendant to the release of permits required to put up, say cellsites

For instance, one cellsite application would need up to 25 signatures and it could eat up up to six months of business time. That is a huge drawback to the need to cover the entire country with ultra fast internet.

Globe’s Binondo initiative forms part of Globe’s thrust in creating an Internet superhighway nationwide. Currently in talks with other local government units for the development of “connected communities,” the telecommunications provider plans to deploy fiber optics in 20,000 barangays by 2020 that will provide fast Internet access to around two million homes nationwide.

The telco is investing an initial $1 million for its Binondo roll-out and this is expected to deliver 1 gbps (gigabit per second) of data, meaning business in the area could drive up the growth of their business that would mean additional revenues for Globe.

It is initiatives such as this one that excite analysts who see in the business plan of Globe Telecom, a firm grasp of its business model. No wonder, it is drawing raves from market pundits, something that could not be said of erstwhile telephone monopoly Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. and its Smart Communications subsidiary.