MANILA, Philippines, Feb. 9, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Globe Telecom, the Philippines' leading mobile operator, has become the first in Southeast Asia, and the second in Asia, to offer Starlink's groundbreaking Direct‑to‑Cell (DTC) satellite service. Joining a growing group of countries worldwide, Globe's partnership with Starlink marks a historic milestone in global connectivity.
Using satellite technology, Filipinos using standard LTE mobile phones will be able to access data, voice, and messaging services directly via satellite, requiring nothing more than a clear view of the sky. This breakthrough eliminates the need for specialized devices and extends mobile reach to areas where terrestrial coverage is limited or impossible to deploy, critical in an archipelagic nation of more than 7,600 islands.
Leveraging Starlink's constellation of over 650 low‑Earth orbit satellites, Globe is addressing one of the world's most pressing challenges, bridging connectivity gaps in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas. The service will also play a vital role in disaster resilience, ensuring uninterrupted communication for citizens and first responders during extreme weather events and natural disasters.
"This partnership with Starlink marks a historic step in our mission to build a digitally inclusive nation," said Carl Cruz, President and CEO of Globe Telecom. "Today, connectivity is a lifeline, a modern‑day utility that fuels opportunity and economic progress. By extending mobile reach through satellite technology, we are ensuring that every Filipino, whether in bustling cities or remote barangays, has access to essential communication."
Starlink's Direct‑to‑Cell service, developed by SpaceX, acts as a "cell tower in space," seamlessly integrating with terrestrial networks and enabling global roaming‑like connectivity. Already connecting hundreds of millions of customers, Starlink has proven indispensable in emergencies, delivering millions of SMS messages and wireless emergency alerts when ground networks fail.
With Globe as its partner in the Philippines, Starlink's DTC service will empower households, businesses, and communities with reliable, consistent connectivity. This collaboration underscores Globe's vision of a more connected, resilient, and inclusive digital future, not just for the Philippines, but as part of a broader global movement to make universal connectivity a reality.
** The press release content is from PR Newswire. Bastille Post is not involved in its creation. **
Globe Telecom Seals Agreement with Starlink to Launch First Southeast Asia Direct‑to‑Cell Satellite Service
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, Feb. 9, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Dilhan C. Fernando, Chairman of Dilmah Tea explains the danger of 2026 being the toughest year is not only to growers; this sounds dramatic, but the danger is genuinely to humanity.
Discount culture fuels an accelerating emphasis on cheap produce, forcing growers to become unethical, unsustainable or give up. Discounts blind consumers to true value, the welfare of workers, shifting attention to price, manipulated perception of price, opaque value chains, normalisation of cheapness and ultimately a discount fuelled disconnect from ethics. Even at the cost of their own health. It's a race to the bottom for growers but it continues, growing in pace as it delivers profit to those that drive it; at unimaginable cost, because that race threatens to compromise everything we value and need more now than ever, from biodiversity and fertile soils to food safety and security.
Climate change and inequality are amongst the most severe threats to human existence. Solutions to both have been evident for decades, but they come at a cost. They include agricultural innovation, strengthening rural economies, addressing the gender balance, health, welfare, reproductive health, education, nutrition, housing and the host of linked truths that feature in the routine vilification of producers. For growers, there is tragic irony in all this; the world needs good, nutritious and healthy food and beverage, yet we are trapped in a tightening vice of discount driven commodity pricing, making that dream more challenging year on year. More tragic is the knowledge that it's not because the money we need to make agriculture sustainable isn't there, it just goes to the wrong pockets.
As growers, our produce is our passion and a livelihood for millions; we cannot compromise either, yet daily we suffer demand for cheaper teas as an unavoidable part of the journey from harvest to consumers. The result is that poor to mediocre teas proliferate by design, finding favour among buyers motivated by profit in preference to quality. Their sales performance is often strong for a while – powered as they are by packaging worth more than their contents and marketing funded by compromise. In the long term though, it signals the disintegration of the tea category.
The dysfunction is systemic and consumers are unwitting participants. The dangerous reality is harming our precious produce and worse, stimulating some of the greatest risks to humanity – climate extremes, worsening inequality, compromised food security, water and air quality.
And what of tea producers who don't have that ability at all because they cannot earn a fair price for produce? Neither tea industry nor Sri Lanka can genuinely afford the adaptation we need to make to continue to offer the world the healthy herb. This is the context of our Grower's Story. It echoes in every agricultural sector sustaining an existential threat that begins with tea, but quickly expands to include humanity.
Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2L1wKyBLhc
** The press release content is from PR Newswire. Bastille Post is not involved in its creation. **
Dilmah Tea: 2026 could be the toughest year for tea growers
Dilmah Tea: 2026 could be the toughest year for tea growers
