Globe Well-Equipped to Accommodate Upsurge in Holiday Network Traffic

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Globe Telecom said it is ready and well-prepared to accommodate an expected surge in network traffic during the holiday season.

The company expects a significant increase in network traffic even as customer behavior in sending holiday greetings continue to evolve, Globe Senior Vice President for Corporate Communications Yoly Crisanto said.

“Growing adoption of smartphone devices, as more and more of our customers continue to shift to a digital lifestyle, is expected to lead to surges in data use. With the seasonal increase in data traffic, we want to assure our customers that Globe is ready and well-prepared to accommodate our customers’ bandwidth requirements,” Crisanto said, adding that Globe also expects similar a surge in network traffic coming from voice and SMS traffic.

Globe recently completed deployment of 500 LTE sites using the 700 megahertz band consistent with efforts to improve internet service in the country. Majority of the company’s L700 sites were deployed mostly in Metro Manila and other highly-populated areas, where majority of customers using LTE-based handsets are located. In addition, the company also activated 900 additional LTE sites using the company’s additional spectrum allocation in the 2600 megahertz band.

With the deployment of LTE sites using both the 700 and 2600 bands, Globe is now able to deliver a more comprehensive LTE coverage in Metro Manila, Metro Cebu, Metro Davao and other major urban areas in the country. The use of both LTE 700 and LTE 2600 bands, along with the company’s additional spectrum resources, supports the capacity enhancement initiative launched by the company early 2016 intended to elevate the state of internet in the country. Globe also launched early this year an initiative of creating an internet superhighway by deploying fiber optic cables in 20,000 barangays all over the country to provide faster and more reliable internet access in about 2 million homes nationwide.

NPC: Bagong Taon, Magbagong Buhay at Magbago ng Password/s

Wazzup Pilipinas!

The National Privacy Commission (NPC) is recommending that Internet users change the passwords of their email and social media accounts as part of their new year’s resolutions. According to Privacy Commissioner Raymund Enriquez Liboro; “Regularly changing your passwords for online accounts such as email and social media is one of the most basic and easiest ways of protecting your data privacy.”

The Privacy Commissioner said this after it was recently revealed by Yahoo that more than 1 billion user accounts were compromisedfrom a data breach that happened in August of 2013. The breach is now considered the largest email data breach in history. Sensitive personal data were compromised including email addresses, dates of birth and telephone numbers that can be used in identity theft and phishing scams. The breach much was bigger than the data breach in 2014 of around 500,000 user accounts that was only announced by Yahoo in September of 2016.

“If you use Yahoo for email or other yahoo online services, we suggest that you not wait until the end of the year to change your account credentials, but instead change them as soon as possible.”, Chairman Liboro said. “Email is usually the means social media services such as Facebook confirm your identity, if your email is compromised, there is a chance that your social media accounts are compromised as well, and criminals could use confidential information there to commit cybercrimes directed at you or the contact list on your email and social media accounts.” Liboro added.

In the Philippines, personal data breaches must be reported to the NPC within 72 hours from their discovery, this is according to the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of the Data Privacy Act (R.A. 10173) issued by the Commission in August of this year.

Other than password changes the NPC is also recommending that Internet users utilize two-factor authentication for confirming their identity. Two-factor authentication is when Internet services send a text message or a code to your mobile phone to confirm who you are instead of just sending an email. Email providers sometimes use this feature when someone accesses their account from an unfamiliar IP address or device.

Best practices in changing passwords include:

1. Don't re-use passwords. One ultra-secure one won't be any good if someone finds it.
2. While combining upper and lower case passwords with numbers to alter a memorable word - M4raD0na - is often advised, these are more easily cracked than you might think.
3. Make a memorable, unusual sentence: “Ako ay isang responsableng mamamayang Pilipinong internet user (aa1-rmpiu).”
4. Changing passwords to passphrases like: “AskalsAreTheBestTeamInAsia”- dramatically improves security. Each additional character increases the number of possible combinations exponentially, making it virtually impossible to crack.

Globe and Partners Commit to Rehabilitation of PGH Pediatric Cancer Clinic

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Globe Telecom, together with its strategic partner Amdocs, major stockholder Singtel, concerned customers and employees joined forces to successfully raise funds for the much-needed rehabilitation of the Philippine General Hospital’s pediatric cancer clinic.

The cost of renovation, which is P863,380.52 will be turned over to the PGH Medical Foundation, Inc., a non-government organization founded in 1997 which acts as the fund-raising arm of PGH.

Amdocs and Singtel donated P200,000 and P100,000, respectively, as part of their corporate social responsibility efforts while the rest came from Globe employees and customers.

This was in response to a call made by Globe to its employees, partners, and customers to share their time, treasure, and talent in bringing cheer to the young cancer patients in PGH and in helping raise funds for the clinic. PGH currently serves about 600,000 patients annually, about 80 percent of which are indigent.

“We are proud to have our partners, employees, and customers step in to participate in this worthwhile undertaking. We continue to encourage everyone to work together so that through this project, we can all bring hope to the patients at the PGH pediatric cancer clinic,” said Yoly Crisanto, Globe Senior Vice President for Corporate Communications.

Earlier, Globe launched a heartwarming video in line with the premiere of the latest Star Wars movie franchise Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. The video garnered over 40 Million views and was recognized by international news sites such as CNN, Mashable, and Huffington Post among others. The video strongly demonstrated the resilience of children in face of adversity and encouraged the audience to help in the rehabilitation of the PGH Pediatric clinic via donations through prepaid load or charged to their postpaid bill.

Globe always tries to give back to the communities where it operates, thus, PGH was chosen as the beneficiary of the project. Manila, where PGH is located, was the first local government unit to cooperate in removing the hurdles in infrastructure building, thereby, allowing the deployment of fiber optics in Binondo for ultra-fast internet access.

Those interested to help may still donate denominations of P100, P200, and P500 from their prepaid load or postpaid plan via SMS by texting PGH to 2158-0744 (PGH) or by using their GCash Android App and following the instructions given.