By Azer N. Parrocha
MANILA, Aug. 20 (PNA) — Globe Telecom Inc.’s customer base has reached close to 45 million at the end of the first half of the year, a 19 percent jump from 37.9 million a year earlier, the telecommunications provider said on Wednesday.
This figure is a record high achievement by the service provider, courtesy of substantial subscriber uptake in its mobile and broadband businesses.
Globe’s mobile customer base in the January-June period totaled 42.7 million, supported by its leadership in the postpaid segment and acquisitions in the prepaid segment.
At the end of June this year, Globe had 2.1 million postpaid customers, up 10 percent from 1.9 million a year ago.
The continued success of the postpaid plans, together with the device offers and deals, helped sustain gross additions to reach 389,695 for the first six months of 2014, up 12 percent from 348,645 gross acquisitions in the same period last year.
Globe Prepaid, meanwhile, recorded gross acquisition of 7.9 million in the 2014 first half, a 27 percent improvement from 6.2 million a year earlier, bringing the total Prepaid subs to 19.3 million.
Touch Mobile (TM), Globe’s cellular service brand, generated the highest gross acquisitions with 5.4 million, a six percent increase from 5.1 million a year earlier, resulting in total customer base of 21.3 million at the end of the first half of this year.
The company’s extension of the Free Facebook promo boosted subscriber acquisitions which, coupled with TM’s continued aggressive acquisition efforts, pushed total prepaid customers to 40.6 million.
Globe also reported that total customer base in its broadband business reached 2.2 million at the end of the first half, sustained by a 27 percent expansion in wireless broadband and 12 percent customer growth in fixed broadband business.
Globe Telecom maintained its growth momentum in the first semester of the year, as core net profit increase accelerated 18 percent from a year earlier, underpinned by strong performance across business segments.
Mobile revenues, which accounted for 79 percent of consolidated service revenues, increased five percent to Php 37.8 billion during the period, supported by higher revenue contributions from mobile data and voice.
Mobile voice revenues, which accounted for 46 percent of total mobile service revenues, grew by nine percent from a year earlier.
Globe said that this was due to continued popularity of unlimited and bulk domestic voice subscriptions, offsetting the decline in pay-per-use domestic voice and international voice services.
Mobile browsing and other data revenues, which now account for 16 percent of total mobile service revenues, stood at Php 6.2 billion in the first half, up 11 percent from Php 5.6 billion a year earlier, underpinned by continuous demand for data services and the popularity of data-driven products and applications.
Globe president and CEO Ernest Cu said that aggressive acquisitions in both the postpaid and prepaid businesses, complemented by robust demand for data connectivity, buoyed the company’s overall customer uptake.
He further noted that the company’s growing 3G and 4G coverage is expected to further support subscriber growth moving forward.
To recall, Globe’s network modernization initiative, launched a few years ago, delivered the country’s most modernized telecommunications infrastructure.
It enabled the company to become the first mobile operator in the Philippines to achieve 100 percent 3G coverage for its entire network.
At present, Globe expects its network to be fully equipped with the more advanced 4G HSPA+ technology, which would further boost network capacity and performance, by the end of the third quarter. (PNA)