Broadband users seen to reach 5 million this year

MANILA, Philippines – Globe Telecom, a premier telecommunications services provider in the Philippines, expects the total broadband market in the country to continue its robust growth, reaching four to five million users by year’s end.

Company officials estimate there are about 2.5 million broadband users as of 2009.

Globe said it aims to grow its share of the broadband market to 1.3 million subscribers this year. The competitive market environment and the rate at which personal computer and laptop prices will fall are the factors that will influence the performance of the country’s strong broadband market, it added.

“The bulk of the subscriber growth will be coming from the nomadic, lower average revenue per user (ARPU) and prepaid segments. In 2009, the strong take-up of our nomadic, on-the-go broadband service greatly exceeded our earlier expectations. As the broadband leader, we will leverage on the strength of our mobile broadband service Globe Tattoo which complements our fixed Globe Broadband offers. Globe Tattoo appeals to subscribers who either seek a secondary service for on-the-go use, or those with limited budgets and who prefer a prepaid, pay-per-use service. Globe Broadband, offered via DSL and WiMAX, provide primary connections to support higher bandwidth services,” Globe president and CEO Ernest Cu said.

He added that one of their key priorities in 2010 is to sustain their growth momentum in broadband. To do this, Globe will continue to expand its network capacity and footprint, strengthen its supply chain in broadband to maximize sales, and improve its service delivery capabilities,” he revealed.

Officials said the broadband business of Globe continued to raise the bar on net subscriber additions in 2009, ending the year with over 715,000 broadband subscribers, more than three times that of 2008, when they had about 230,000 subscribers. In the fourth quarter net subscriber additions, about three-fourths are from Globe Tattoo that continues to enjoy brisk sales having introduced the prepaid variant.

The reduced price of the dongle to only P895 since September also helped in pushing Globe Tattoo in the market. The fixed broadband service also had good take-up led by the WiMAX service of Globe. The Globe WIMAX network is the first and largest mobile WIMAX network in Southeast Asia to date.

With its continued expansion, WiMAX is now available in over 190 towns and cities nationwide.

Total broadband revenues of Globe climbed 74 percentto P3.2 billion in 2009, from P1.9 billion in 2008, and comprised five percent of the company’s consolidated sales. –Mary Ann Ll. Reyes (The Philippine Star)