Sun shines on Sun; cellco hits six million subscriber mark

Digitel Telecommunications (Digitel), which markets mobile services in the Philippines under the brand name Sun Cellular, has reported signing up its sixth millionth subscriber, and says it is on course to achieve its target of ten million users by the end of the year. In an interview with the local Daily Inquirer, Digitel’s president and CEO James Go said his firm ended March with 5.3 million subscribers and has since increased this to six million on the back of marketing campaigns such as its 3G service Sun Broadband and its PHP call-and-text campaign. The 3G service had an initial 200,000 subscribers, Go said, and the company intends to increase this by improving network capacity and service quality. Digitel will invest PHP12 billion (USD274.7 million) in 2008 to expand its networks. It hopes to have deployed a total of 4,000 cell sites by the end of this year, up from 2,300 at 31 December 2007.