More bandwidth, cell sites to enhance mobility—Globe

An increase in bandwidth and the construction of more cell sites for mobile phones are the only means to improve phone and Internet services while lowering costs, a Globe Telecoms official said.

The recent Broadband Policy study released by the United States Agency for International Development (Usaid) and the Joint Foreign Chambers of the Philippines (JFC) said that tow­er-sharing could be a solution to increase broadband speed and make it more affordable.

The telco industry, how­ever, has indicated that even with tower sharing, this will not help address the issue of speed and affordability since the cell site towers of both tel­cos are similarly located.

“What we need is to in­crease cell site density by building more cell sites,” said Globe General Counsel Froilan Castelo.

Based on the study made by TowerXchange in February 2016, the number of unique physical cell sites in the Phil­ippines is one of the lowest in Asia with a combined 15,000 cell sites.

China has the highest number with 1.18 million cell sites, followed by India with 450,000, Indonesia with 76,477, Vietnam with 55,000, Thailand with 52,483, Paki­stan with 28,000, Bangladesh with 27,000, and Malaysia with 22,000.

The Philippines, with 15,000 cell sites, is only higher than Cambodia and Australia, both with 9,000; Myanmar with 7,620; and Sri Lanka with 7,000. By comparison, the United States has 205,000 cell towers in place.

Castelo said mobile-data explosion amid growing ac­cess to Internet connectivi­ty requires more bandwidth than traditional voice and text messaging services. Thus, it demands the establishment of more cell sites for tele­communication operators to deliver mobile data services especially indoors, he said.

As smartphones continue to evolve into all-encompass­ing wireless personal com­puters, telecommunications operators need to construct additional cell sites to enable their respective networks to transmit enormous amount of data.

Cell sites transmit radio frequency signals that en­able voice and data services in a given geographic area, simultaneously supporting multiple handsets, operating in different frequencies and maintaining connectivity even phone users they are in transit.

“The continuing clamor for better broadband ser­vice quality and experience has to do with the issue of congestion. Despite various capability upgrades and net­work modernization using the latest technologies, the disproportionate number of cell sites vis a vis traffic in the advent of a digital revolution cancels out the gains of any state-of-the-art network,” Castelo said.