Globe Telecom Inc. has deferred plans to sell its cellular towers but would focus on partnerships with tower companies to further ramp up its network expansion.
Rizza Maniego-Eala, Globe chief finance officer and chief risk officer, said the company has been looking to sell its tower since February 2018, but tower companies need to scale up.
“The tower companies really need to set up their operation properly in the Philippines and need to scale up. There could be delays on their end whether it could be regulatory or also caused by the pandemic,” Eala added.
To date, Globe has signed seven agreements with various tower companies: Ison Tower Ltd. Inc., ISOC Edotco Towers Inc., CREI Phils. Inc., Transcend Towers Infrastructure (Philippines) Inc., Frontier Tower Associates Philippines Inc. and Phil-Tower Consortium Inc.
Eala said Globe’s focus now is to pursue partnerships with tower companies but it is still open to sell towers in the future.
“We move our focus from selling towers to partnering with them (tower companies) on a build-to-suit basis. Now that being said, it doesn’t mean in the future we will no longer monetize our passive assets which include the towers. We look forward to opportunities to monetize depending on the time, resources and the partnership available,” Eala added.
Globe’s rival network PLDT Inc. recently announced plans to sell its cellular towers but there were no details yet on the schedule.
As of June, Globe has installed at least 641 new cell towers and completed 8,175 site upgrades as part of its continued network modernization efforts. The new cell sites were built in Metro Manila, Pangasinan, Laguna, Iloilo, Cavite, Rizal, Batangas, Cebu, Bulacan and Pampanga.
Globe has surpassed the 600,000 fiber to the home (FTTH) lines it laid down in 2020 and expects to build over one million FTTH lines this year to address the increased demand for home broadband services.
