MANILA, The Philippines-The Ayala group, one of the Philippines’ biggest conglomerates, plans to limit capital spending for mobile-phone subsidiary Globe Telecom to US$500 million for the next two years, as the bulk of infrastructure needed to establish its network has been completed.
Ayala Corporation President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala said capital spending for Globe would be significantly lower than in previous years.
In the first half of this year, Globe Telecom had spent US$220 million in capital expenditures and had committed another US$206 million for the rest of the year, according to Zobel de Ayala.
Close to 2,000 Globe Telecom cell sites are currently in place, with capacity for 5.7 million subscribers. He added that the subsidiary estimated that it would have a sufficient capacity for 6.9 million subscribers by year-end.
The company claimed it has maintained its dominance of the high-end market with 84 percent of all postpaid subscribers, while its prepaid market share has also improved to 42 percent in June from 41 percent in March.
