Wireless, Going Forward

If Globe plays its cards right, it could position itself as a major regional player in the ASEAN regional telecommunications space. 

As with international companies, it should first strengthen its foothold in its home court, the Philippines through several measures. As I see it, Wi-Fi will soon become obsolete, and if cellular networks are built properly, it can accommodate the anticipated traffic.

Why will Wi-Fi become irrelevant? Firstly, it is cumbersome to access. For a decent connection, one needs a subscription to a service, which requires monthly billing and payments, and such. In addition, its reach is as limited as the reach of the router, which precludes a seamless connectivity experience.

 In contrast, mobile data accessed through the cellular network is as simple as registering to the service through text. In addition, such an access/payment scheme is more responsive to people based on their needs for the service. For instance, they can enrol for a certain amount of data access for the day they need it, and pay accordingly, and not register on the days they do not need it. In the early days of adoption, this will be the case, but as mobile data becomes more ubiquitous because of the availability of more enterprise and productivity applications, it may one day become as indispensable a utility as electricity and water.

In addition, cellular network enabled mobile data access provides a seamless connectivity experience, that is, one can access the network at home and continue accessing it outside, in the car, in the office, without having to switch networks and use multiple passwords, which could be risky.

To digress, public Wi-Fi networks are unviable because the security risks they pose far outweigh the benefits of providing access.

Another potential growth area for the company is content aggregation. It is in a good position to act as a gateway, or gatekeeper (however one looks at it), to content, which will fuel the boom in mobile data access. High speed connectivity will be inutile without applications and content to provide purpose for accessing the network in the first place. For instance, it can partner with start up developers who can provide their applications on a fair and rational revenue sharing business model. To accomplish this, one must look at the cost of delivering the application or service over the network, make allowances for healthy but not usurious profits, which can then be reinvested into improvements and upgrades both for the network provider, and the application developer.

Partner with streaming services providers such as Apple and Spotify, as well as content providers traditionally accessed through traditional media such as TV and radio. HBO comes to mind, with its streaming services, the Netflix business model could be tweaked to make access to its library easier. Hooq, for instance, could be delivered via the mobile network. For instance it could provide six movies to a registered subscriber through their Internet enabled phone over two weeks for a prescribed subscription rate. Or subscribe for a longer period at discounted rates. The possibilities are endless.  

At the moment, the healthiest and most competitive revenue model we can see is revenue sharing, because it spreads the risk between the telco and the content provider.

To crossover to other markets, the most rational measure would be partnerships with local players. Or Globe could partner with Philippine applications developers (especially for the enterprise market) and deliver localized and customized services to the locales they want to penetrate. 

It should not limit its horizon to infrastructure. The telco space is evolving, as the network becomes cheaper, faster and more accessible to a larger market base. One logical spinoff enterprise is content management and applications aggregation, sort of become a mobile marketplace for digital content.

In the medium term, it could even dip its toes in cloud computing (which it should already be doing), with a specific focus on enabling small and medium businesses, since they make up majority of the Philippine market, and is a potentially rich training ground for jumping off into the global marketplace. The company could focus on this specific niche and build strength as it plans growth in offshore markets.