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THE
mobile phone subscriber base of the Philippine Long
Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) Group grew by over 3
million in the first half of the year from 30 million at
end-2007.
At
end-June, the subscriber base of Smart Communications
Inc. and Pilipino Telephone Corp. (Piltel) combined
stood at a “little over 33 million,” said a reliable
source over the weekend.
The
group’s mobile-phone subscriber base has been increasing
despite hard times. At end-2007, the phone giant
reported that cellular subscriber base increased by 5.9
million to 30 million. In the first three months of this
year, the group reported a growth of 1.5 million to end
the first quarter with 31.5 million wireless
subscribers.
The
growth in subscriber base from January to March this
year was higher than what the group had recorded in the
same period a year ago. PLDT wireless subscribers grew
by 1.3 million to 25.5 million in the first quarter of
2007.
Smart
and Piltel, cornering 55 percent of the cellular market,
are committed to continue to defend their market
leadership by developing innovative voice and text
packages that drive activations, boost usage and
strengthen brand equity.
The
mobile phone penetration rate, which is the percentage
of Filipinos estimated to have cellular phones as
compared to the estimated number of population, will
reach 75 percent to 80 percent in about two to three
years. Wireless penetration rate last year hit 57
percent, translating to about 50 million cellular
subscribers. In 2006, it 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.
“But
hard times are setting in now,” said the source.
PLDT
officials have been saying for the past months that
growth in consumption spending will abate as the effects
of inflation triggered by higher petroleum prices start
to be felt.
“We will
see a slowdown this month. . . . Normal seasonality,”
added the source.
At the
company’s annual meeting, PLDT chairman Manuel
Pangilinan had said that the phone giant has to adjust
to the ill-effects of rising inflation, spiraling fuel
prices and other basic commodities.
“It is
important to appreciate how colossal a problem this oil
crisis really is, and what its impact could be on PLDT,”
said Pangilinan.
“We face
the rest of the year with rising inflation threatening
to reduce our revenues and increase our costs,” PLDT
president Napoleon Nazareno, for his part, said.
Still,
PLDT is maintaining its core profit guidance of P37
billion for 2008, ahead of last year’s P35.2 billion by
P1.8 billion. The company earlier said its core net
profit would rise by 5 percent this year to P37 billion,
slower than last year’s 11 percent.
For the
first three months of the year, PLDT’s core-net profit,
which excludes foreign currency and derivative gains,
went up by 11 percent to P9.3 billion mainly due to a
6-percent rise in service revenues and strong growth.
PLDT,
partly owned by Hong Kong’s First Pacific Co. Ltd. and
Japan ’s NTT Group, intends to raise its committed
regular dividends by P2 billion to approximately P26
billion, equivalent to 70 percent of estimated 2008 core
earnings. |
