MOBILE-services operators Smart Communications Inc. and Digitel Mobile Philippines Inc. (Sun Cellular) claimed to have strengthened their combined leadership in the postpaid business, after posting strong subscriber and revenue growth during the first nine months of the year.
For the period under review, Smart and Sun Cellular’s postpaid subscriber base grew to 2.3 million, 15.4 percent more than the 2.66 million subscribers in the same period the year prior. This means the two telecommunications company make up 55 percent of the total postpaid market.
Combined postpaid revenues remains stellar at P15.908 billion, a 13.3-percent year-on-year increase from P14.035 billion, and significantly higher than the industry average of 11.7 percent. Postpaid revenues now account for about 20 percent of total cellular revenues of the two companies.
“Smart Communications, through its Smart and Sun Cellular brands, continues to be the postpaid leader in terms of subscriber base and revenue growth. Our business has been consistently growing as we continue to offer innovative services that suit the various lifestyles of our subscribers. From Smart Infinity to Smart Postpaid to Sun Postpaid, our subscribers have the choice of the best premium brands in the market,” Smart and Sun Cellular Executive Vice President Charles A. Lim said.
“This is a segment where customer experience is key. We’ve definitely raised the bar in postpaid with our combined strategy of network superiority and digital lifestyle offerings together with premium handset deals and brand of customer service,” he said.
Smart offers Internet-based contents through apps, such as Spinnr and Deezer for music, Blink and ViewStream for videos, Buqo for books and magazines and Gamex for games.
“As wave after wave of powerful smartphones come into the market, and our network becomes more and more pervasive and able to deliver meaningful and valuable content via these devices, Smart and Sun postpaid subscribers will have the advantage of having a full lineup of all kinds of relevant content ready for them to enjoy,” Lim added.
Meanwhile, rival Globe Telecom Inc. claimed to have dominated the local mobile-data industry after breaching past the P10-billion mark in terms of revenues during the first nine months of the year.
The wireless services provider posted an 18-percent growth in mobile data revenues to P10.2 billion as of end-September, 46 percent higher compared to the combined mobile-data revenues of its two competitors.
The growth was a result of the trend shift from unlimited plans to consumable data plans.
Globe also claimed to have spearheaded the shift from unlimited time-based data plans to volume-based consumable plans to allow its customers to equally enjoy improved mobile data experience and ensure the most appropriate and affordable pricing for data plans.
The consistent growth in mobile-data revenues was also spurred by the continuing popularity of data-driven products and applications, increasing demand for data connectivity, as well as the growing affordability and availability of data-enabled smartphone devices.
“Globe recognizes the change in our customers’ behavior, especially with the surge of more affordable smartphones. In turn, they look for the right kind of data plan that suits their digital lifestyle. Globe adapts to this by improving our portfolio of products that are relevant to our customers,” Globe Senior Vice President for Consumer Mobile Marketing Issa Cabreira said.
The second-largest telecos company in the Philippines has earmarked P29 billion for its budget for 2015. Bulk of the amount will be invested in further modernizing its infrastructure to boost its capacity to handle larger volumes of bandwidth.
1 comment
I think there is a serious err in here…it should be 2.66 million from 2.3 million…geez…