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WIRELESS
subscribers of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone
Co. (PLDT) Group grew by about 1.5 million in the first
quarter of the year.
In a
text-message, PLDT president Napoleon Nazareno said the
combined subscribers of Smart Communications Inc. and
Piltel’s ‘Talk ‘N Text’ reached 31.5 million as of March
31.
“That’s
right, it grew to about 31.5 million,” he said.
The
numbers compare with the 1.3 million subscribers that
brought the Group’s subscriber base to 25.5 million in
the first quarter of 2007.
In 2007,
the phone giant reported its cellular subscriber base
increased by 5.9 million to 30 million.
This
year, the PLDT Group targets to add at least five
million mobile- phone subscribers and about half a
million for broadband.
Smart
and Piltel will continue to defend their leadership by
developing innovative voice and text packages that drive
activations, boost usage and strengthen brand equity.
The PLDT group holds about 55 percent of the cellular
market.
Nazareno
said mobile phone-penetration rate, or the percentage of
Filipinos estimated to have cellular phones in relations
to the estimated number of population will reach 75
percent to 80 percent in two to three years.
The same
measure last year hit 57 percent, or about 50 million
cellular subscribers. It stood at 48.7 percent in 2006
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.
Nazareno
also said Wednesday that short message service (SMS)
traffic is now averaging between 1.1 billion and 1.2
billion a day, of which 700 million to 750 million are
outbound messages.
“This
year, we are targeting about double in terms of
broadband subscribers. Probably, we will have one
million broadband subscribers this year,” Nazareno said.
The
group offers three types of broadband services—PLDT DSL,
Smart Bro and WeRoam. Subscriptions for these more than
doubled to 579,000 last year, or five times more than
the reported subscribers of its closest competitor.
The
group’s competitive edge in broadband market can be
attributed to its ability to offer wireless-broadband
services 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
addressable market for broadband services is expanding
rapidly, because of the growing number of personal
computers (PCs) that in 2006 stood equivalent to eight
percent of the population, or about 1.4 million
households with access to PCs.
“…We are
seeing P20,000 for a PC. That will guide the growth.
Remittances also play an important factor. Before,
overseas Filipino workers mostly bring home televisions
but now they bring in more PC for their family. So, that
will definitely help broadband grow,” Nazareno added. |
