Telcos report record number of customers

MANILA, Philippines—Competition in the local telco industry remained tight as rivals Globe Telecom and Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) both posted healthy gains in subscriber acquisition, pushing the country’s mobile phone penetration to record highs.

By end-2012, there were 103 million active mobile phones in the country, according to telcos’ data. This was up by 9.8 percent over the same period the previous year.

The PLDT group, which operates Smart Communications, Sun Cellular and Talk N’ Text, had 69.9 million users at the end of 2012, keeping its market share steady at 67.86 percent. This was up from 63.7 million subscribers in 2011.

The PLDT group said its strongest-performing segment was Smart Communications’ postpaid operations, which expanded by 24 percent last year—the highest growth rate in a decade.

Globe Telecom, operator of the Globe and TM brands, saw its subscriber base grow to 33.1 percent at the end of December from 30.04 percent the year before. This kept the company’s market share steady at just over 32 percent.

Globe’s postpaid user base rose 19 percent year on year, helping Globe retain its lead in the postpaid segment.