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THE
mobile telephone sector continues to be “healthy” and
also can keep growing, with about 15 million potential
wireless subscribers still out there without any mobile
communications device.
The
president of Globe Telecom, a joint venture of Ayala
Corp. with SingTel of Singapore, Gerardo Ablaza, said
they recorded better-than-expected subscriber take-up in
the fourth quarter of 2007. “It was healthy and in line
with our expectations,” he added, without disclosing the
number of their new subscribers in last quarter of 2007.
They have 19.2 million at end-September.
He said
mobile-telephone firms can continue running after those
still without a cellular phone— until wireless
penetration rate hits 70 percent by 2010.
Ablaza
earlier said that based on a recent pulse monitoring,
Globe had between 15-percent and 20-percent multiple-SIM
(subscriber identification module) card usage from its
subscriber base.
To
prevent Globe subscribers from switching to other
networks, Ablaza said they continue to offer more
services to strengthen the relationships already
established with its customers.
“Each of
our subscribers has a different set of needs. It is very
important to have the right combination of tariffs or
pricing with the services that are relevant to each of
those segments, as well as the ability to communicate in
different ways with those segments,” he said.
The
mobile penetration rate stood at 49 percent to 50
percent at end-2006. Telephone firms earlier forecast
that wireless penetration rate could hit 55 percent to
57 percent in 2007. But this early, based on the initial
numbers released by the other mobile-phone operators,
the wireless-penetration rate in 2007 may have already
surpassed the 60-percent level, or 60 percent of the
population already have a cellular phone.
The
population for 2007 was estimated by the National
Statistics Office to have reached 88.5 million.
Smart
Communications Inc. and Pilipino Telephone Corp. (Piltel),
which is owned 92 percent by Smart, reported a total
subscriber base of more than 30 million at the end of
2007.
Smart
also has over 1 million users of its Smart Money, a
mobile-phone- banking service, and nearly 300,000
subscribers using its wireless broadband service.
Sun
Cellular, the cellular brand of listed firm Digitel,
reported 5.5 million subscribers as of early December
last year. At the end of 2006, Sun Cellular registered a
little less than 2 million subscribers. |
