New cell tower brings joy to Ladia, Sultan Kudarat residents

Globe customers in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao are now experiencing the benefits of the company’s massive network builds not only in urban areas but also in far flung places. 

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Just recently, Globe was able to install a new cell tower in Barangay Ladia that instantly improved its connectivity and widened its coverage in the municipality.

Tarhata Mastura, a resident of the barangay, said the signal was very bad in their barangay and even in the whole town as well.

“Doon kami nagpupunta sa silong ng mga puno ng niyog. Doon kami naghahanap. Minsan wala. Kahit mataas ang araw tinitiis namin (We go under the coconut trees to look for signal. Sometimes we don’t have. Even if it’s hot, we bear it just to find a signal),” she recalled.

Mastuta says most of them even travel to Pigcawayan in Cotabato just to have a signal. “Nagbibiyahe kami papunta Pigcawayan ng 30 minutes naghahanap ng signal (We travel by at least 30 minutes to Pigcawayan searching for a signal),” Mastura added.

Peace and order were big concerns in Sultan Kudarat in the past, making it very difficult for Globe to install towers. But with heightened security, a more peaceful situation now prevailing in the Sultan Kudarat and a very supportive local government unit to Globe’s network rollouts, a life-changing cell tower was built in Ladia.

“Ngayon ang ganda na kahit nakahiga ka may signal. Puwede ka mag celfone, nakakatawag o nag iinternet (Now everything is great. Even if you are just lying down, you have a signal to make a call or browse the internet),” Mastura exclaimed.

With the installation of the Globe tower, Mastura and her kabarangays now have up to 52 Mbps when they connect to the internet which makes them forget the sad stories of the past when getting connected means traveling several kilometers away to Cotabato or spending time under the hot sun looking for a signal.

“These uplifting stories drive us even further to build more and more cell towers in areas where our presence is really wanted and needed. The thought of making a difference in the lives of our kababayans makes it worthwhile to push forward all efforts to bring connectivity across the country in spite of the restrictions and limitations by the pandemic,” said Joel Agustin, Globe Senior Vice President for Program Delivery, Network Technical Group.

Globe is targeting to build at least 2,000 new cell sites in strategic locations all over the country. 

Globe’s aggressive and sustained network builds and upgrades are showing enhanced overall customer data experience as the telco emerged as the most improved in mobile average download speed across all technologies to 16.44 Mbps in Q4 2020 from 13.50 Mbps in Q4 2019, a 22% improvement according to Ookla data.

Globe supports the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDG), specifically UN SDG No. 9 which emphasizes the roles of infrastructure and innovation as crucial drivers of economic growth and development. Globe is committed to upholding the 10 United Nations Global Compact principles and 10 UN SDGs.