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GLOBE
Telecom plans to spend close to P1 billion in acquiring
the subscriber base of Touch Mobile (TM), the cellular
brand of Innove Communications Inc.
Globe will pay Innove P120 for every TM
subscriber that will be transferred from its
wholly-owned subsidiary. “This represents the
acquisition cost that Globe will be paying to Innove,”
Globe chief financial officer Delfin Gonzalez told
reporters in a press briefing.
He added: “Aside from acquisition cost,
there are other payments as well, including retention
bonus for loyal TM subscribers.”
Gonzalez noted that Globe’s cellular
market share is expected to widen over time as a result
of the transfer, which was approved by the National
Telecommunications Commission (NTC) last week.
“With the integration of the subscriber
base of TM and Globe, we will have more compelling
promos that will attract new subscribers. So,
eventually, that will increase the subscriber base, and
hopefully, we will see some big leap in market share,”
said Gonzalez.
Globe closed the first quarter with 21.3
million subscribers with a 38-percent market share of
the cellular market. Of which this number, TM
subscribers stood at over 8 million. Rival Philippine
Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) still leads the race
with 55 percent, while Sun Cellular retained the third
spot with a 7-percent share.
The migration will also boost the
company’s revenues as Globe can now extend various
promotional offerings to TM subscribers. Moreover,
access charges between calls from and to both TM and
Globe will be removed, thus lower rates between Globe
and TM subscribers. “The migration allows us to be more
flexible in terms of tariffs and promotional offerings.
It should help our revenues as well,” added Gonzalez.
Access charge is the fee paid by a
carrier for every minute of call that passes through the
network of another carrier. The access charge for voice
calls is P3, while the access rate for text message is
P0.35.
Froilan Castelo, Globe head for
regulatory affairs, said existing promos of Globe and TM
were pulled out to comply with the policies set by the
NTC. “But we will offer them back.”
Only
this time, the promos will be offered to both Globe and
TM subscribers unlike before when an existing promo of
TM only applies to TM subscribers,” he said.
Ferdinand de la Cruz, Globe consumer
wireless business head, said the company will issue a
public notice about the new SMS (short messaging
service) pricing schemes that will be available to both
Globe and TM subscribers.
Globe’s ‘Unlimitxt,’ a P20-unlimited text messaging service;
‘Sulitxt,’ P15 for every 100 text messages; and
‘Everybody Txt,’ a P20 fee for every 100 SMS plus 10
more free text messages to other networks, can be
extended to TM subscribers.
Likewise, TM subscribers availing of the ‘Todo Txt,’ a
P15-fee for an unlimited SMS; bulk text promo, P10 for
75 SMS; and TM Everybody Txt, P10 for 55 SMS with five
free text to other networks, can send text messages to
Globe.
“These are the concrete examples of what
we are saying about the migration. There is flexibility.
The migration will definitely result in better offerings
to our subscribers,” added de la Cruz. |
