BEING one of the Asian countries with lowest cell site density, the Philippines is forced to serve more internet users per cell site compared to most of its neighbors.
Setting up more telecommunications infrastructure continues to be challenging in the country, hampered by lengthy permit applications and some uncooperative stakeholders.
Latest data from TowerXchange and We Are Social showed that user-per-cell site density in the Philippines is now about 4,036, based on the estimated 16,600 total cell sites against internet users of around 67 million internet users as of first quarter of 2018. This shows a stark difference when compared to some of its neighboring countries like India, Indonesia, China, and Vietnam.
India, with 1.459 million cell sites against 462 million internet users, has a user-per-site density of 316. Indonesia, with over 91,700 cell sites against 132.7 million internet users, has a user-per-site density of 1,446. China, with 1.95 million cell sites against 751 million internet users, has a user-per-site density of 384. While Vietnam, with 70,000 cell sites against 64 million internet users, has a user-per-site density of 914.
The disproportionate number of cell sites versus internet users in the Philippines is mainly attributed to difficulties in securing permits from various local government units (LGUs), homeowner associations (HOAs), and other stakeholders, causing considerable delay in the construction of such facilities, said Globe chief technology and information officer Gil Genio.
For Globe Telecom, more cell sites are needed as its network saw mobile data traffic soar by 49 percent to 641 petabytes during the first nine months of 2018, from 430 petabytes recorded in the same period in 2017.
As of end September 2018, Globe clocked in 65.4 million mobile customers, the majority of which are internet users.
“Consumer demand for mobile data is growing at an explosive rate. This means more and more cellular towers have to be deployed to keep up with the demand. But deployment is only the final step to a potentially long, costly site acquisition process,” Genio said. (PR)