Nokia says it will transform the fixed and mobile networks of Philippines telco, Globe Telecom, into more robust networks that will help meet the country's burgeoning and future digital demands.
Nokia's subsidiary in China, the former Alcatel-Lucent Shanghai Bell, has signed two agreements with Globe; one for wireless technologies and the other for IP, optical and SDN technologies.
The agreements were signed during the state visit of the Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte to China during which he announced he was ending the Philippines' long standing ties with the US and switching his allegiances to China. According to reports of that visit, China has promised investments and soft loans to the Philippines worth a total of $US24b.
Nokia says that, under the agreements, Globe Telecom will 'transition to a flexible cloud-based network infrastructure, with Nokia's 5G-ready AirScale radio access and IP, optical and carrier SDN technology solutions providing seamless connectivity to consumers and enterprise customers as the operator prepares for IoT and 5G '¦ [and allow Globe] to support the Philippine government's initiative to further expand the availability of broadband services in the country.'
The agreements follow Globe recently gaining access to new LTE spectrum. To enable Globe to exploit this spectrum, it will deploy Nokia's AirScale base stations and Flexi Zone small cells, managed by NetAct, in the Visayas and Mindanao regions, providing broadband access to some areas in these regions for the first time.
According to Nokia, 'Globe will also be enabled to use mobile edge computing and advanced carrier aggregation techniques to deliver virtually unlimited scalability and dramatic improvements in speeds and capacity that will deliver compelling new services.
'The technology will also enable lower power consumption, reduced operating costs, more network automation and enhanced network performance as it transforms Globe Telecom's customer experience for a subscriber base growing at 10 percent annually, as well as meeting increasing demand from IoT devices.'
SDN technology delivered
In the second frame agreement Nokia will deliver its integrated IP and optical networking and carrier SDN technologies across the Philippines to 'enhance the agility, quality, performance, coverage and capacity of Globe Telecom's enterprise data services network.'
This, Nokia says, will allow Globe to deliver coverage to more regions such as Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.
'Using Nokia's carrier SDN platform, Globe will also be able to provide flexible data services such as bandwidth-on-demand nationwide and expand its offer to thousands of enterprise customers, global service providers and local government agencies as well as those serving the information technology-business process outsourcing, hospitality, education, manufacturing, retail, healthcare, logistics and finance industries,' Nokia said.
