News
Philippines operator undertakes pilot project in island provinces of Bohol and Cebu, calls for more 700-MHz spectrum to be made available.
Globe Telecom is running a pilot programme to test the viability of using of TV white spaces to address the demand for wireless broadband and to enable it to roll out coverage more quickly and in a more economically viable way.
The Philippines-based telco is running the pilot in conjunction with the government’s Information and Communications Technology Office of the Department of Science and Technology in the island provinces of Bohol and Cebu.
The trial uses vacant frequencies located between broadcast TV channels in the UHF and VHF ranges, between 54 MHz and 806 MHz.
Globe explained that it is working on enhancing the cell site density of its network in order to provide additional capacity to meet data demand.
"However, building a cell site has proven to be a major challenge for us and we couldn’t build cell sites as fast as we want to," said Emmanuel Estrada, SVP for network technologies strategy at Globe, in a statement on Monday. He added that building a cell site requires the telco to obtain around 25 permits and has a lead time of at least eight months.
Furthermore, building out mobile data coverage in rural areas is often economically unviable due to the distances between locations, but the use of white spaces will help to address this, Estrada said.
"TV white space is considered an ideal wireless data delivery medium in the Philippines because of its long distance propagation features and the ability of its signals to travel over water and through thick foliage," Globe explained. It noted that the latest white spaces equipment can deliver speeds of up to 10 Mbps at up to 10 km.
Thus, white space frequencies require fewer cell sites to cover a given geographic location, compared with existing wireless technologies, Globe said.
Meanwhile, Department of Science and Technology undersecretary Louis Casambre said that the use of white spaces would provide connectivity for local governments, hospitals, schools and similar organisations in rural areas.
However, white spaces alone will not be enough to meet Globe’s spectrum needs.
The operator repeated calls for the harmonisation and equitable distribution of unused spectrum in the 700 MHz band; use of the band would enable telcos to provide broadband at faster speeds in a more cost-effective manner, it said.
"Even with the utilisation of the TV white space frequency, Globe needs an allocation from the 700 MHz [band] as this spectrum has existing technology for state-of-the-art LTE, currently not available for TV white space frequency," Globe said.
