Philippines-based Globe Telecom more than doubled mobile site deployments year-on-year in Q1, as it also upgraded existing plots to LTE and forged new 5G roaming agreements.

The operator said it rolled out 318 new sites, up from 126 in Q1 2020, and upgraded 7,065 to 4G, 245 per cent higher.

It ended March with a total of about 10,800 sites.

The increased pace of construction is driven mainly by a government push to streamline infrastructure planning permission and building processes: Globe Telecom secured 495 permits to build towers from local government agencies in the first two months of the year.

It previously earmarked PHP70 billion ($1.4 billion) to upgrade and expand its networks across the Philippines in 2021.

Globe Telecom also said it signed 5G roaming deals with Viettel in Vietnam and STC in Saudi Arabia.

It previously announced roaming agreements with Singtel in Singapore, CSL in Hong Kong and Ooredoo in Kuwait.

In February and March, rival Smart Communications teamed with Far EasTone to introduce 5G roaming covering Taiwan and South Korea.