Globe to defend 7-year wireless telco leadership

MANILA  -Globe Telecom Inc. is ready to defend the crown it has worn for about seven years now as rival Smart Communications Inc. recently declared its aspiration to reclaim the top spot after the SIM (subscriber identity module) card registration cut their market share gap significantly.

Ernest Cu, president and CEO of the Ayala-led telco, said in a virtual briefing on Tuesday the company’s revenues would not be affected by the decline in subscriber base, noting it had secured nearly all the revenue-generating consumers.

After the July 25 deadline and five-day grace period for SIM registration, competitor Smart said 52.5 million of its users had complied—just 1.2 million lower than Globe’s 53.7 million. Prior to this, Globe had 84.75 million SIM cards, significantly bigger than Smart’s 66.3 million.

Globe chief commercial officer Issa Guevarra-Cabreira said they were seeing better average revenue per user given the heightened demand for connectivity with the return to school and further reopening of the economy.

“We expect to defend that [mobile market leadership] in the coming years,” Cu said.

Globe had outpaced Smart in terms of number of mobile subscribers since 2016.

“We’ve never been focused on the number of subscribers that we have … it’s just a byproduct of overall leadership in industry,” he added.

However, Cu admitted the company might face headwinds with the recent slowdown in the economy. The telco giant eyes to grow its revenue by “mid-to-low single digit” this year.

Globe’s earnings dropped by 27 percent to P14.38 billion in the first half from P19.68 billion a year ago due to absence of a one-time gain from asset sale and higher depreciation expense. INQ