Tags: Mobile Phone Industry, Technology Industry
By Alexander Villafania
MAKATI CITY, METRO MANILA – Increasing market saturation and the lower revenues coming from unlimited pricing of their core voice and short messaging system (SMS) business has resulted in lower revenue streams for the telecommunications industry in the Philippines.
But higher usage for wireless data services, particularly on mobile phones, could stem this revenue decline, according to research firm Ovum.
In a report last October 1, Ovum Lead Analyst Anubhuti Belgaonkar forecast that data services should typically offset revenue decline for the Philippine telecommunications firms, particularly Globe Telecom and the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT), which reported reduced revenues for the first half of 2010 primarily due to intense competition for unlimited SMS and voice services.
Data services could come from their wireless Internet services, particularly the fixed wireless, nomadic wireless and mobile Internet.
Belgaonkar stressed that both Globe and PLDT – represented by its mobile services firm Smart Communications – shrank revenues by 1 percent in the second quarter of 2010, compared to a positive three percent growth in the same period in 2009.
The decline in revenues is identified as signs of an impending market maturity as mobile phone penetration hit 78 percent as of the end of 2009.
Ovum expects mobile subscriber base in the Philippines to reach 107 million by 2015, which should be 98 percent of the country’s population by then.
The current population is pegged at 94.3 million this year, according to the National Statistics Office (NSO). The average population growth rate based on NSO statistics is about 1.5 million per year since 2005. At this rate, the population could reach 100 million by 2015.
Total mobile subscriber base is at 72.2 million; 45.3 million for Smart, 23.9 million for Globe Telecom, and 13 million for Sun Cellular.
In response, Gio Bacareza, head for Smart Communications Wireless Consumer Division for Broadband Internet and Data Services, said the company is banking on mobile Internet data to augment their flat revenues. He said social networking services are particularly in demand among mobile broadband users.
Meanwhile, Globe Telecom CEO and President Ernest Cu admitted that stiff competition among the telecommunications firms with bucket pricing and unlimited voice and have affected revenue streams for Globe.
The company is also set in building new services on their mobile services side. He expects the next few years to see more data services coming for mobile phones.
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