Philippines market sizzles as Globe gives Smart a run for its money

Globe President and CEO Ernest Cu (Source: Globe Telecom)

The Philippines telecoms market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 7.8% during 2016-2021, driven by growth in mobile data and fixed broadband segments.

While the overall Philippines telecoms space is running red hot, the country’s mobile market has been particularly energetic for some years. Mobile data will be the largest contributor segment through 2021.

Despite competition from new carriers and mobile operators, PLDT has continued to be the Philippines’ dominant fixed-line and mobile provider, and as such has played a large part of the momentum in the country’s telecom market.

Nevertheless, PLDT’s role has not gone unchallenged. Globe Telecom, long the second largest mobile operator in the Philippines, pushed ahead of PLDT’s mobile unit Smart in Q4, and clocked up more than ten million subscriber additions through 2016.

Globe had been slowly gaining on the market leader since 2012 when it had a 32% market share. However, over the past two years it rapidly closed the gap as Smart shed 7.8 million customers. Globe finished 2016 with 66.6 million subscribers compared with Smart’s 62.1 million, giving Globe a 52% market share according to GSMA Intelligence.

The operator began to close in on Smart in 2015, when Globe registered 12.2 million net additions and Smart lost nearly five million mobile customers. Smart’s market share since Q4 2015 fell from 61% to 48% by the end of 2016.

Going forward, operators’ investment in 4G networks, modernization of existing 3G networks, deployment of fiber connectivity for provision of digital services will present significant opportunities for vendors and investors.

Key Findings from a new report on the Philippines telecoms market by Pyramid Research:

  • The overall telecom service revenue in Philippines is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 7.8% during 2016-2021, mainly driven by data segment.
  • Operators are focusing on expanding 4G coverage and offering attractive data plans to boost data usage.
  • Mobile revenue will account for 63.5% of the total telecom revenue in 2021; mobile data will be the fastest growing segment over 2016-2021.
  • The Philippines telecom market will continue to be dominated by the duopoly of PLDT (Smart) and Globe Telecom during the forecast period.

One thing is for certain: the Philippines Telecoms space is rather unique, and well worth watching in terms of innovation.

More Here [Yahoo] [MobileWorld]

This article first appeared on PricingDataPlans

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