Globe agrees to lease telco towers to Thai group

GLOBE Telecom, Inc. has signed an agreement to lease telecommunications towers in Southern Luzon to a unit of Thailand-based Sky Tower Plc. to monetize its assets.

Globe’s lease partnership signed on Feb. 6 with the Thai firm will be through the latter’s Philippine subsidiary, Skytowers Infra, Inc. No amount was disclosed for the leased towers.

According to the Ayala-led company, the collaboration is a part of its overall strategy of monetizing passive assets to maintain a healthy balance sheet.

“This partnership represents an important step in improving digital infrastructure in the Philippines, and we are excited to work with Skytowers to bring sustainable solutions to the market,” President and Chief Executive Officer Ernest L. Cu said in a press release.

Globe said that Skytowers will complement its sustainability efforts as the tower company committed to reduce its carbon footprint by using renewable energy.

The parties’ collaboration was hosted by Thailand’s Ambassador to the Philippines Tull Traisorat, as the partnership is seen to promote economic growth and development locally and in Thailand.

“We look forward to further strengthening our relationship with Thailand in this venture and other areas of collaboration,” Mr. Cu said.

Thailand is one of the country’s major trade partners and a source of its rice imports. The Philippines and Thailand will celebrate their 75^th anniversary of diplomatic relations next year.

Skytowers offers telecommunications services and fiber optic solutions to Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Indonesia.

It is affiliated with Electric Power and Telecommunication Infrastructure, which has extensive experience in engineering design and manufacturing.

In a separate press release, Globe expanded its collaboration with software and communications services provider, Amdocs, which is expected to make the telco’s 5G services faster across all its business lines and also allow monetization of select services.

“We are pleased to expand our collaboration with Globe Telecom and provide them with our latest charging platform, offering seamless monetization opportunities for standalone 5G and beyond,” Amdocs Group President of Technology and Head of Strategy Anthony Goonetilleke said.

In the expansion, Amdocs will be deploying real-time charging solutions across Globe’s multiple data centers.

“This will add resiliency and stability to Globe’s system ensuring seamless delivery of services without any disruption while enabling them to quickly launch differentiated 5G services to consumers and businesses across all lines of business,” said Amdocs.

The new platform will also support application programming interface-based charging, which will allow Globe to monetize digital and fintech services.

“Building on our partnership with Amdocs, their 5G-native charging solution will provide us with the benefits of flexible, efficient real-time charging and monetization capabilities, empowering us to meet emerging business demands and customer needs,” Globe Chief Information Officer Raul M. Macatangay said. — Justine Irish D. Tabile