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GLOBE
Telecom intends to spend $190 million a year until 2009
to finance its broadband Internet initiatives, company
president Gerardo Ablaza said.
In an
interview, Ablaza said the company may have to calibrate
the amount in the years to come, but for now Globe sees
an annual capital expenditure of $190 million to develop
businesses in wireless and wired broadband or DSL.
“We will
continue with that level of spending over the next year,
or even two years more,” the Globe official said.
The
company has allotted 48 percent of its 2007 capital
expenditure of $400 for broadband Internet accounts.
Last year Globe has allotted $290 million for capacity-
building in its cellular and broadband business.
Ablaza
said Globe is currently mapping out its
multimillion-dollar broadband Internet program. DSL and
3G technologies are the company’s top platforms in
accessing broadband Internet.
Globe’s
share of the DSL market, now at 24 percent from 20
percent in 2005, is growing.
Ablaza
said there is a need to strengthen the company’s
presence in the broadband space. Globe’s broadband
market share remained at 16 percent as of end-June. The
company’s broadband revenues during the first half of
the year reached P499 million, up 92 percent
year-on-year.
The
company’s near-term priority is to build capability so
as to support a possible surge in demand, Ablaza added.
Globe
announced it is upgrading wired broadband products by
increasing connection speeds, providing value-added
services and rolling out more capacity to other parts of
the country.
From 768
kilobits per second (kbps), Globe has increased
connection speed to 1.5 megabytes per second (Mbps) and
kept the rates at P995 a month.
It also
offers up to a 3 Mbps connection speed for P1,995 a
month.
In the
second semester, Ablaza said revenue growth is expected
at a slower pace. Competition in the consumer and
corporate wireless market will remain intense, he added.
“Sustained GDP growth rates and strong OFW remittances
are driving a wider distribution of income. Consumer
surveys also point to improved optimism and stronger
buying interest,” Ablaza said.
Revenues
in July and August were “still quite good” compared with
the same months last year, Ablaza said. “Revenues came
down slightly because of the removal of what we
generated from the election period. However, when you
compare it with the same months last year, we are still
seeing better revenues.”
The
cellular firm gained P350 million to P400 million from
the election-related activities during the first half of
the year.
“I hope
we could sustain the growth we had during the first
half. We also hope to sustain at least an additional one
million subscribers this quarter. Our subscriber base
could hit close to 20 million by the end of the year,”
Ablaza added.
Globe,
the nation’s second-largest phone company, reported a
subscriber base of 18.1 million as of end-June, compared
with 16.9 million as of end-March.
Rival
Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. reported 27.1
million cellular subscribers as of end-June. |
