Philippine Telecom to Upgrade Network BRIEFLY BUSINESS ASIA By Bloomberg

Globe Telecom, one of the Philippines’ largest phone companies, may spend as much as $900 million through next year to expand and upgrade its network as it keeps adding subscribers.

The Manila-based venture of Singapore Telecommunications and Ayala will probably end the year with 20 million cellphone users from 18.1 million at the end of June as economic expansion lifts consumer spending, Gerardo Ablaza, president of Globe, said Monday in Manila.

Globe and its bigger rival Philippine Long Distance Telephone added more users this year and booked more revenue from calls and text messaging as politicians that vied for national and local posts in May campaigned through cellphone messaging and used their phones more.

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