MANILA, Philippines – Globe Telecom on Wednesday, June 6, announced that its first commercial 5G network will be deployed by the second quarter of 2019 – a significant benchmark for Internet service in the Philippines.

The 5G or fifth-generation wireless technology is the next pace for mobile networks, with blazing fast speed and latency improvements over the previous iteration — 4G or LTE. 5G is gradually rolling out worldwide now, with South Korea, the United States, China and Japan currently leading the quest on employing a complete, nationwide 5G network.

Globe’s first 5G deployment will be utilized to its fixed broadband service — Globe At Home. With the telco’s 5G technologies, Globe seeks to fulfill Internet speeds of 50 Mbps to 100 Mbps to fixed broadband users through a wireless radios instead of the traditional fiber optic lines. Globe Telecom calls the wireless technology service asGlobe 5G Air Fiber Internet.

“We have been preparing our network for sometime now with our existing vendor partners, including Huawei Technologies. We are happy to bring the Philippines in line with other countries that are early adopters of 5G,” Globe Telecom president and CEO Ernest Cu said.

Using 5G-enabled, wireless technology dubbed as “Air Fiber,” the ISP and telecommunication company claims that it’s avoiding another infrastructure hiccups deep-rooted to traditional fiber optics roll-outs: government permits.

Globe added that 5G Internet connectivity through Air Fiber delivery, the telco won’t have to over the “circuitous approval process of deploying a fiber optic cable, which involves multiple permits from local government units (LGUs).”

The permits to build network facilities have long been an matter in question for network roll-outs, an bone of contention that the government, most especially the Department of Information Communications and Technology (DICT) has recognized but has yet to truly mend, as proposed by Globe Telecom’s latest press statement. “The right of process can sometimes take years to obtain delaying fiber optic roll-out completion,” Globe’s press statement goes.

“We can bring internet to more homes by deploying 5G compared to a typical fiber optic roll-out,” Cu said.

Globe hasn’t announced its 5G network deployment specifically for mobile. The company also has a deal with Huawei as a wireless technology partner, like rival Smart Communications. Smart, on Thursday, June 6, announced the launch of its 5G research & development (R&D) facility, and points to be “5G-ready” by 2020.

Globe has been spending over 31-percent of its annual total revenues to upgrade and expand its telecommunication and Information Technology (IT) infrastructure. For years, the company has been ramping up its capital expenditures from P21.1 billion in 2012 to P36.7 billion a couple of years ago and P42.5 billion last year, in order to provide its patrons of better Internet services. The firm recently disclosed that it will further speed up its capital spending to over P43.5 billion this year. – CentrioNews.com/ Centrio News