Aboitiz InfraCapital Inc. said Friday it secured separate deals with Globe Telecom Inc. and DITO Telecommunity Corp. for the deployment of small cell sites to boost network capacity and coverage.
Under separate lease agreements, the two telcos deployed small cells across Aboitiz InfraCapital’s pole network in Cebu and Davao.
“The partnership with Aboitiz InfraCapital will complement the company’s target expansion and ensure we sustain the momentum of our aggressive network build,” Globe chief finance officer Rizza Maniego-Eala said.
The Aboitiz Group’s infrastructure arm expects significant increase in pole leases within the next two years as telcos prepare for 5G deployment. This would need antenna densification to provide users with large data quantities at higher speeds.
“While forging strong partnerships with telcos like Globe and DITO, we are also looking at growing our small cell sites beyond our current footprint as we anticipate the increased demand from telcos and other internet service providers,” said Rafael Aboitiz, general manager of Aboitiz InfraCapital’s small cell site business.
“We are particularly keen on expanding in other key urban cities in Visayas and Mindanao, where network congestion is a primary issue that hampers service quality,” he said.
Heeding the government’s call to help improve the information and communications technology infrastructure, Aboitiz InfraCapital announced earlier this month it was venturing into the small cells site business in addition to its common tower project.
The company is offering its sites nationwide to support telcos and ISPs with wireless network capacity and coverage.
A small cell network is a series of small low-powered, short-ranged antennas that provide coverage and capacity, meant to work in conjunction with macro cell towers. Similar to the common towers business model, telcos and ISPs can co-locate small cell attachments in Aboitiz InfraCapital’s pole network, thereby helping fast-track expansion, increase service reliability, reduce costs and lessen redundant sites.
While significant upgrades have been made in recent years, the country still has a long way to go to address network quality, particularly for internet speeds.
According to Speedtest by Ookla, mobile internet speed in the Philippines for September 2020 was 119th in the world with an average download speed of 16.89 megabits per second slower than the global download average of 35.96 Mbps.
