Globe Telecom: Uplifting the Lives of Filipinos

Globe Telecom, a major provider of telecommunications services in the Philippine, faces the challenge of providing reliable connectivity and enabling the digital lifestyle across the country's vast archipelago of more than 7,100 islands. Yoke Kong Seow, Chief Technical Advisor of Globe Telecom, shares insights into the company's strategic focus areas, digital transformation approach, and connectivity efforts to address this challenge.

You have rich experience in the telecom industry across APAC. What trends have you observed in the APAC region?

I have previously worked in Singapore, Australia, and now in the Philippines. While the focus is slightly different in different markets, the common theme has been on how to do things more efficiently and more effectively. Initially, there was a strong focus on utilizing data and doing analytics. However, over the past year or so, there has been a shift towards leveraging AI to improve the customer experience.

While many people are talking about AI chatbots, our focus on the technical and network sides is centered on using AI to detect issues faster, determine where the issues are in the network, and identify the problems that our customers are facing with their mobile phones or their mobile streaming experience. Given the large amount of data involved, AI is needed to help. Undoubtedly, AI has become a major trend.

Any best practices you would like to apply to the Philippine market?

There are two practices that I would like to implement in the Philippine market, specifically for Globe. The first practice is focused on our ways of working. This involves making use of tools, dashboards and automation to simplify our operations. The second one is centered on customer experience optimization. This relies a lot on partners like ZTE to deliver to us innovative technologies and radio solutions, so that we can provide better services to our customers.

How do you think the company should technically advance, and what is your strategy for maintaining Globe's leading position in the country?

Today, my first focus is on automation and simplification. This includes how we bring data together, how we use AI to simplify some tasks, and how we use digital technologies to make things simpler.

The second area of focus is our transport network strategy. One of the most important considerations for customers is availability, which is closely related to reliability. They expect to be able to use network anytime, anywhere they need it. Therefore, our challenge lies in delivering a reliable network. To achieve this, one of the things we need to focus on is our transport network, particularly our optical fiber networks. In countries like the Philippines where there are extensive infrastructure developments, we need to ensure that our transport network—our fiber, IP, Metro Ethernet networks—is resilient and free from any single points of failure.

What are some of the challenges you are facing as you implement your strategy?

When it comes to automation and simplification, the key challenge is getting the right talent or developing the right skills for our people as it requires a different way of thinking and an understanding of how to use data and AI. Therefore, we're focusing on equipping our people with new IT skills while attracting talent to join our group to help us do that.

The second challenge is ensuring the resilience of our network, especially our transport network. We're in the process of re-architecting our transport network to make it robust and resilient. This involves bringing in a party to look at our entire architecture and help us see the things that we cannot see ourselves. Additionally, we are exploring the use of some new optical technologies to help us achieve long-haul optical transmission.

Digital transformation offers endless opportunities and benefits. What elements do you think are going to bring the necessary digital transformation and make an impact on society?

Globe has a very focused purpose: to uplift the lives of Filipinos. Filipinos face many challenges in improving their economy and education. As an enabler, Globe provides reliable connectivity and various tools that allow them to interact digitally and access services such as healthcare and mobile wallets for transactions.

With our connectivity, Filipinos can also engage in the digital economy and sell things online through social media platforms like TikTok, where they can engage with customers and show what they have. The three key elements for Globe are reliable connection, access to a digital wallet (GCash in Globe's case), and access to services like healthcare and others.

What is your plan to better engage with household customers and boost ROI?

As the No. 1 mobile operator in the Philippines, we also recognize the importance of delivering quality broadband services to the Filipinos. We understand that the social and economic conditions of Filipinos are diverse, and many of our customers are earning their wages on a daily basis.

To address this, we are rolling out a new prepaid fiber service. This service allows customers to have a fiber connection, and when they want to have internet access, they can top up their broadband for a certain time period, such as 7 days or 15 days. Then they can wait until they need to use it again and top up. The introduction of prepaid fiber makes broadband available to the poorer sections of Filipinos, empowering them to uplift themselves and narrowing the digital divide.

How do you see the future of connectivity evolving in the Philippines? What are your expectations for vendors like ZTE in this process?

We have made significant investments in connecting all the islands. As part of this effort, we have been building a lot of submarine cables and exploring the use of microwave and satellite to deliver services to remote areas or islands. This is one area we are partnering with ZTE. We are deploying ZTE microwave technology to enable us to deliver services to remote communities where it's hard to deploy fiber. We'd love to work with ZTE to look at other wireless broadband technologies that can offer cost-effective solutions to Filipinos living in remote areas.