Contract, Mobile, Broadband, 3G, Philippines, Asia-Pacific: Reflecting The Philippines’ increasing importance in Asia-Pacific communication, the country’s second-largest mobile-phone service provider has now brought to the region its first built-in high-speed broadband component.

During May Globe Telecom will be running special promotion of the new services; it does not as yet intend to introduce extra charges. The company has for some time been expecting demands for more flexibility from its 3G customers as its subscriber base has grown - success breeding success. HSDPA will achieve this by allowing faster data transfer speeds and Internet browsing, while subscribers enjoy, for example, video streaming and video calls.

For Globe Telecom 3G is very important this year as, it is seen as a lever to recover from the somewhat sluggish subscriber growth figures of 2005, when net income fell nearly 9%. Current subscriber base is 12.4 million customers. To facilitate more 3G services Globe is allocating about US$50 million to upgrade its cell sites.