By Emmie V. Abadilla

Globe Telecom Inc. is on course to fulfill its commitment to deploy high speed Long Term Evolution (LTE) services to 95 percent of municipalities nationwide by the end of this year to meet customers’ growing demand for data.

To date, the telco has over 26,200 4G sites where about 12,000 are LTE stations nationwide, SVP for Program Governance of the Network Technology Group Joel Agustin yesterday announced.

Globe continues to be aggressive in expanding its LTE coverage across the Philippines by deploying an additional 1,752 LTE sites carrying the 700Mhz and 2600Mhz bands during the first half of the year.

The telco’s mobile data traffic increased by 40 percent with 390 Petabytes from January to June this year compared with the 280 Petabytes in the same period last year.

Network improvement efforts would always be a priority due to customers’ growing use of smartphones to access the internet, video streaming apps, and games, according to Augustin.

“We are aggressively improving our existing network infrastructure by building more cell sites and base stations to enhance the quality of experience of our customers,” he added.

The increasing use of content-streaming services is among the primary drivers of the demand for data. Globe continues to provide its customers with more video-on-demand options by bringing in the top global video services in the country, the latest of which is Amazon Prime Video.

The company has also partnered with Netflix, Fox, Disney, Viu and YouTube.

Meanwhile, with the bulk of 30 million Filipino video gamers using Globe Telecom Inc.’s network, the telco is now building its Esports portfolio to exploit the commercial potential of the multi-billion dollar industry.

Last year alone, the Philippines’ 29.9 million video gamers spent a total of $354.2 million, placing the country as number 29th in the world in terms of total revenue, according to newzoo.com, an international market intelligence and data site specializing in games, mobile and ESports.

Globally, the number of Esports fans has been forecasted to grow by over 50 percent in 2019 to 500 million people and the industry is expected to generate revenues of $1 billion per year.

Industry experts see the potential for this market to grow to $10 billion – $20 billion, eventually.

By 2021, data analysts predict the Philippines alone will have 48 million video gamers, accounting for about 47 percent of the population.

Hence, “We will build the ecosystem needed for Esports,” pledged Jake San Diego, the telco’s Head of Games.

The telco staged its first SEA open Esports tournament with Globe Conquerors Manila 2018 and a prize pool of $250,000 and is now intent on going full throttle, providing customers with internationally-seeded tournaments, streaming content and exclusive gaming promos.

Already, the integration of Esports and video games into existing mobile data promos contributed to the 39 percent increase of total Globe mobile data traffic, which reached 390 petabytes for the first half of 2018.

The company’s total mobile data revenue, which includes video games and entertainment content, reached P25.6 billion for the first half of 2018, which is 26 percent higher versus the same period in 2017.

In the past year, Globe has partnered with League of Legends developer, Riot; Garena, the publisher of Arena of Valor and Philippine publisher of League of Legends and premiere Esports events organiser, Mineski.

This year, Globe introduced GoWATCH and PLAY, a special offer for its existing GoSURF and GoSAKTO promos.

It includes an additional free 2GB data for playing Arena of Valor, Mobile Legends, Clash of Clans, and Clash Royale.