Philippines operator Globe Telecom is to offer its customers access to Netflix, using direct carrier billing so they can pay through their fixed or mobile broadband accounts.
The company will also offer Netflix via new customised broadband plans, said Globe, bundling internet access with content for TVs and other devices, including gaming consoles and even security cameras.
“Our partnership with Netflix gives us this extensive library that will allow us to give our customers their much-awaited TV and movie titles whether they are at home or on-the-go”, says Globe chief commercial officer, Albert de Larrazabal.
The Philippines is the fastest growing smartphone market in the Association of South-east Asian Nations, according to IDC’s latest quarterly mobile phone tracker, with 3.5 million smartphones shipped to the country in the first quarter of 2016.
Netflix already has 81 million customers in 190 countries, said Tony Zameczkowski, Netflix vice president of business development for Asia Pacific. “Our partnership with Globe brings us closer to consumers who love entertainment and enables us to connect even more Filipinos.”
Meanwhile Globe Telecom has complained to content delivery network Akamai that it has not included mobile internet access in the Philippines in its latest state of the internet report.
Akamai’s report said that fixed broadband speeds in the country increased from 2.8Mbps to 3.5Mbps between the first quarters of 2015 and 2016.
But mobile broadband speeds weren’t counted, complained Yoly Crisanto, the operator’s SVP for corporate communications. “By using the average speed for fixed broadband to represent the internet speed for the whole country is erroneous.”
