Digitel Mobile Philippines Inc (DMPI), which offers mobile services in the Philippines under the Sun Cellular barrier, says it has now signed up more than 13 million customers. DMPI, a unit of Digital Telecommunication Inc, closed out 2009 with eleven million mobile users, up 35 year-on-year from 8.154 million in 2008. The Business Mirror writes that the massive jump in the first few months of this year has been attributed to the popularity of Sun’s pre-paid services which are benefiting from the introduction of more affordable and innovative products. The operator’s efforts are also being bolstered by an aggressive network rollout programme that has already seen more than 5,000 base stations installed nationwide.
Earlier this month CommsUpdate reported that Gokongwei-controlled DMPI reported net income of PHP334 million (USD7.4 million) for the three months to 31 March 2010, reversing a net loss of PHP286 million in the same period of 2009. Consolidated service and non-service revenues reached PHP3.901 billion in January-March 2010, up by 21.5% year-on-year from PHP3.214 billion previously, driven by strong growth at Sun Cellular. The mobile arm booked operating revenues of PHP3.048 billion, up 35.7% y-o-y, it said. Meanwhile, Digitel’s wireline data (i.e. DSL) operation also reported healthy growth, expanding 15.1% y-o-y to PHP114.9 million compared from PHP99.8 million previously.