|
A
network disruption was blamed for the slow take-up of
Globe Telecom mobile-phone subscribers in the first
quarter, company president Gerardo Ablaza said
yesterday.
If there
had been no service disruption, Ablaza said the cellular
firm would have registered at least over a million in
new mobile phone subscriptions from January to March
this year as against the 960,000 net additions posted in
the first quarter.
“Apart
from the macroeconomic pressures that we think were
applicable in the first quarter, we had a few network
disruptions that actually slowed down our subscriber
acquisition particularly for Touch Mobile,” said Ablaza.
Globe
closed the quarter with 21.3 million subscribers.
The
disruption was in the nature of submarine and fiber
optic cable cuts that occurred in January this year and
while telco services were almost immediately restored
in Visayas and Mindanao, Ablaza said there were
“attritional affects” that resulted in a slow down in
subscriber acquisition and usage of telco services.
“We
believe there was a slow down in subscriber take-up
during the first 45 to 60 days of the quarter
particularly for Touch Mobile where that brand is strong
in the provinces,” said Ablaza.
The
Globe executive said the cellular firm has regained
subscriber momentum in March and April this year, adding
about 400,000 new cellular subscribers last month.
“I am
personally confident that we are passed that initial
challenge because our March and April subscriber net
additions were significantly better. Last April was even
better than our average monthly in the first quarter,”
said Ablaza.
Globe’s
monthly net addition during the first quarter stood at
320,000. “The top-ups are better in April than what we
saw in the first quarter of the year,” he said.
With
400,000 new subscribers registered in April, Globe now
has at least 21.7 million mobile-phone users registered
in its network. Ablaza said it may be possible that the
cellular firm may end the year with about 24 million
subscribers. “With a million net additions in a quarter,
a 24 million subscriber base could be possible by the
end of the year,” he said.
Globe is
the country’s largest telecoms. It said the other day
that core net profit in the first quarter fell 4 percent
to P3.5 billion.
In a
report, Globe said it would be difficult to achieve
double digit revenue growth this year as rising food and
fuel prices soak up consumer income.
“Rising
food and fuel prices may continue to undermine near-term
growth prospects as consumers reallocate spend. Wireless
revenues will grow but at a slower rate,” said the
company.
Globe’s
first quarter service revenues were flat at P15.5
billion after expanding 11 percent in the same period
last year. |
