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THE goal
of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) Group
this year is to add at least 5 million mobile phone
subscribers and about half a million for broadband.
The
phone giant leads the wireless industry with 55-percent
market share that translates into 31 million cellular
subscriber base as of February 29. This reflects an
increase of 1 million more subscribers from December 31,
2007. The group’s cellular- subscriber base last year
grew by 5.9 million to 30 million from 2006.
“We are
still looking at a favorable growth this year on the
cellular side. The trend for the first two months was
quite energetic for us,” said PLDT president Napoleon
Nazareno.
“We will
hit closer to what happened last year… slightly higher
than the 5 million growth that we experienced last
year,” he added, when asked about the group’s target for
mobile subscribers.
Nazareno
said the group intends to capture 4 million more
subscribers for the rest of the year by offering promos
that address specific needs of subscribers.
He said
the group’s strong subscriber growth belies the belief
that the country’s high penetration rate indicates a
slowing demand. “A 75-percent to 80-percent wireless
penetration rate is achievable in the next two to three
years,” Nazareno added.
Mobile-phone penetration rate—the percentage of
Filipinos estimated to have cellular phones compared
with the estimated number of population—hit 57 percent
last year. The percentage translates to roughly 50
million cellular subscribers.
The rate
in 2006 stood at 48.7 percent and 40.9 percent in 2005.
In terms of mobile-phone subscribers, there were 41.8
million in 2006 and 34.4 million in 2005.
PLDT’s
rival Globe Telecom ended 2007 with 20.3 million
subscribers.
The
phone giant also leads the broadband race, with its
subscribers accounting for more than 70 percent of the
Philippine market.
“This
year we are targeting about double in terms of broadband
subscribers. Probably, we will have 1 million broadband
subscribers this year,” Nazareno said.
The
group offers three types of broadband services under
PLDT DSL, Smart Bro and WeRoam. Subscriptions for these
services more than doubled to 579,000 as of December 31,
or five times more than the reported numbers of its
closest competitor.
The
group’s edge in the broadband market is its ability to
offer wireless service even in areas where traditional
copper wire is absent. “The Philippine broadband market
is brimming [with] potential. It is just like the
cellular industry,” Nazareno said.
The
market for broadband services is expanding rapidly,
underpinned by wider personal computer (PC)
penetration—8 percent in 2006, which translates to 1.4
million households with access to PCs.
“We are
seeing P20,000 for a PC. That will guide the growth….
Before, overseas Filipino workers…bring home televisions
but now they bring in more PCs for their family. So that
will definitely help broadband grow,” said Nazareno.
“There
is growth happening in urban areas. There is such a
strong potential for broadband because the penetration
rate is still low,” Nazareno added.
SmartBro,
the wireless broadband service operated by cellular
subsidiary Smart, reported 302,000 subscribers, adding
180,000 new users last year. Smart now has 2,780
wireless broadband-enabled base stations, covering more
than 600 cities and municipalities, according to PLDT,
which ended the year with about P2.4 billion in wireless
broadband revenues. |
