The Philippines’ second largest operator by subscribers and revenue, Globe Telecom, booked net income of PHP8.974 billion (USD191.05 million) in January-June 2016, representing a 3% improvement from PHP8.710 billion in 1H15, driven in part by growth in its broadband data revenues. The operator booked consolidated service revenues of PHP59.569 billion in the six-month period, up 11% year-on-year from PHP53.830 billion in the year-earlier period, noting that strong growth was fuelled by rising data service revenues across mobile, home broadband and corporate data services – in particular mobile data. Service revenues derived from its wireless unit – which account for the lion’s share, or 77%, of turnover – rose by 3% y-o-y to PHP45.743 billion, as mobile data revenues surged 46% from PHP12.2 billion to PHP17.8 billion (or 39% of total mobile turnover). By contrast, sales of mobile voice and text (SMS) services declined, although Globe was quick to point out that earnings from its landline business improved by 29% y-o-y due to growth in sales of bundled home broadband plans. First-half consolidated EBITDA rose by 13% to PHP25.598 billion from PHP22.715 billion in the same period a year ago, and CAPEX of PHP17 billion was used to support the growing subscriber base and its increasing appetite for data, it said. To date, Globe has a total of 28,992 base stations live in its network, with close to 19,000 for 4G LTE. As of end-June 2016, Globe had amassed a total of 61.3 million mobile subscribers, a notable 20% increase from the 51 million subscribers reported at 30 June 2015, which it attributed to strong pre-paid gross acquisitions during the period under review.
Commenting on the group’s results for the first six months of this year, Globe president Ernest L. Cu said: ‘Globe’s overall results in the first half remained robust amidst fierce competition and the unique challenges and opportunities posed by increasing levels of smartphone penetration and mobile post-paid ownership in the market.’