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GLOBE
Telecom on Thursday said subscriber take-up in May was
generally “healthy” as it was in the previous month when
the country’s second-largest phone firm added about
400,000 new mobile-phone subscribers in its network.
In a
text-message, Globe president Gerardo Ablaza said “the
takeup was still good in May” despite sluggish consumer
spending brought about by a slowdown in economy.
He added
that Globe, which is jointly owned by Ayala Corp. and
Singapore Telecoms, was able to sustain in May the
number of new subscribers it registered for April. “Yes,
we were able to do that.”
Ablaza
did not provide further details but if the cellular firm
had kept in its network the 400,000 new Globe users
registered in April and added about 400,000 more in May,
per its projections, then the company now has
approximately 22.1 million mobile-phone subscribers.
At
end-March this year, Globe reported 21.3 million
cellular subscribers.
He said
there are 15 million potential wireless subscribers that
mobile-phone firms can continue running after as
wireless penetration rate is estimated to hit an
estimated 75 percent by 2010.
The
mobile penetration rate is computed as the percentage of
Filipinos estimated to have cell-phones relative to the
population. Last year, penetration rate hit the
60-percent level.
“Today,
there are 25 percent to 30 percent of Filipinos who are
less than nine years old. By definition, this 25 percent
is too young to own a cell-phone. But in the next few
years, they will be eligible. So, the 75-percent
penetration rate and 15 million potential wireless
subscribers are good numbers to consider for 2010,” said
Ablaza.
Globe
has 38 percent of the mobile industry against Philippine
Long Distance Telephone Co.’s 55 percent.
Earlier,
Ablaza said the company expects slower revenue growth
this due to rising inflation. “It’s going to be
difficult to achieve the double-digit growth rate we saw
last year,” he said.
Globe’s
service revenues rose 11 percent last year. This helped
boost its net profit by 13 percent to P13.28 billion.
During
the first quarter, Globe’s core net profit fell 4
percent to P3.5 billion. Service revenues in the same
period remained flat at P15.5 billion after expanding 11
percent in the same period last year. |
