Globe Telecom will acquire additional generating sets to power their cell sites in order to improve the network’s resiliency after supertyphoon Yolanda.
Ernest Cu, president and CEO of Globe Telecom, said they are finding ways to “restore service faster” and improve their fiber optic infrastructure.
“As we rebuild , these facilities will go underground,” he said in a media briefing after the 2014 Annual Stockholders Meeting in Makati.
The telco incurred about P100 million in damage from the supertyphoon, said Albert de Larrazabal, the company’s chief finance officer.
“But the P100 million damage from Yolanda is not very significant in the context of the $650 million capital expenditure (CAPEX)“ which Globe spent the previous year and plans to spend this year, he said.
Asked if the storm affects Globe’s CAPEX, de Larrazabal said “there will be some spend but it will not be a significant.” He said Globe will maintain about the same level of spending this year and next.
At one point over 750 cell sites were down for various reasons after the storm, said Cu, mainly due to lack of electric power. This resulted in an 8-hour outage, even if some sites were ready to go back on line.
The storm damaged the fiber optics infrastructure, poles were washed out, and major transmission points were knocked down by strong wind, he said.
Cu said Globe is looking at acquiring more generator sets to power the sites to hasten restoration after a storm.
“People are not an issue. The staff is so driven that right after the storm passed, they were out in their trucks,” he said.
Asked if he was satisfied with the government response to the power situation, Cu said it was difficult to blame the government in dealing with a problem of that unforseen magnitude.
“We don’t blame anyone. We just work with what we have. The next time around, we will do better in our restoration efforts,” he said.
As part of efforts to typhoon-proof the system, Cu said Globe will also look into alternative designs of their cell site towers.
Globe executives were asked how they are addressing a previous complaint of the Cebu City Council and Cebu Provincial Board about “poor” interconnectivity of mobile services of telcos in government offices.
Roy Froilan Castelo, general counsel and senior vice president, said Globe attended the public hearing on the matter and are are working to identify problem cellsites “so we can address it.”