Globe to boost capex to $750M
The Philippines’ second largest operator Globe Telecom plans to raise up to PHP10 billion ($209.4 million) from bank loans to help finance a 6.5 per cent increase in capex this year.

Globe said it was looking to line up at least two additional bilateral loans with banks.

The operator, with a 44 per cent market share, is allocating $750 million to capex this year, or 27 per cent of annual revenue. Nearly 65 per cent of its more than 28,000 base stations now support 4G service.

Last year 60 per cent of its $704 million capex went to modernising its network and that percentage is forecast to stay the same in 2016.

Airtel pushes green energy
India’s largest operator Bharti Airtel said it has converted 40,000 telecoms towers, which previously used diesel fuel, to run primarily on hybrid battery and solar technology.

The move is part of the operator’s Project Leap, which aims to reduce its carbon emissions 70 per cent by 2018. It is pushing green energy technologies across its operations, with plans to double its green sites by 2020.

Airtel has a rooftop solar power capacity of 770KWp (kilowatt peak) and plans to increase that to 1MWp in the coming months.

Spark, Vodafone expand rural coverage
New Zealand’s two largest operators Spark and Vodafone added 15 towers in rural areas to extend coverage to 1,700 square kilometres previously uncovered.

The expanded coverage was required under the auction agreement for the 700MHz band the operators won in 2014. The companies have five years to build out 65 towers in rural areas.

Communications Minister Amy Adams said 80 per cent of New Zealanders have access to 4G services and the government expects that number to reach 90 per cent by 2019, ComputerWorld New Zealand reported.

Bangladesh operators delay dropped-call compensation
Despite Bangladesh’s telecoms regulator calling for operators to compensate customers for dropped calls, the country’s mobile players have not started to give subscribers compensation.

The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) last month directed operators to provide 60 seconds of free talk time on each dropped call as compensation. The Posts and Telecommunications Ministry said operators need to inform customers by SMS daily or weekly about the number of dropped calls and how much free talk time was given.

The Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh (AMTOB) said there was no clear direction for call drop compensation in BTRC’s benchmark for quality services mentioned in its letter to operators, the Independent reported. The group has asked the BTRC to explain how the compensation would work.