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TELECOMMUNICATIONS company, Globe Telecom, said
subscriber take-up in the second quarter was generally
“healthy” despite an observed slowdown in consumption
spending brought by the effect of inflation resulting
from higher-petroleum prices.
“The
take-up in the second quarter remains healthy. But for
the specific numbers, these will be out in our
disclosure,” said Globe president Gerardo Ablaza said in
a text message to the BusinessMirror yesterday.
The
joint venture between Ayala Corp. and SingTel is
expected to report its first-half earnings in the middle
of August.
The
executive did not disclose if Globe added in June the
same number of new subscribers recorded last April and
May, which was about 400,000 per month.
Ablaza
said last month that Globe added in May about 400,000
new mobile-phone subscribers and kept in its network
another 400,000 new users registered in April.
With
about 800,000 new Globe subscribers, the cellular firm
has approximately 22.1 million mobile- phone subscribers
as of end-May from 21.3 million at end-March. If Globe
was able to sustain a net addition of 400,000 in June
then the cellular firm would have ended the first half
with 22.5 million wireless subscribers.
Rival
Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) added 1.6
million new wireless subscribers in the second quarter
to end the first half with over 33 million in
cellular-subscriber base.
But
Ablaza 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-phone penetration rate is the percentage of
Filipinos estimated to have cellular phones as compared
to the estimated number of population.
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.
“Today,
there are 25 percent to 30 percent of the Filipinos who
are less than nine years old of age. By definition, the
25 percent today is too young to own a cell phone. But
in the next few years, they will be eligible. So, 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 PLDT’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 net profit by 13 percent to P13.28 billion. During
the first quarter, Globe’s core net profit fell four
percent to P3.5 billion.
Service
revenues in the same period were flat at P15.5 billion
after expanding 11 percent in the same period last year. |
