Globe Telecom of the Philippines said that net income for the three months ended 30 September 2018 fell 0.8% year-on-year to PHP4.853 billion (USD70.0 million), down from PHP4.893 billion in 3Q17, due in part to higher depreciation expenses booked in the third quarter, but service revenues improved to PHP35.085 billion from PHP32.238 billion as the number of its mobile subscribers jumped 10% y-o-y to 65.4 million as of end-September and home broadband subscribers rose by 23% to around 1.5 million. For the nine-month period, meanwhile, Globe’s net income rose 13% to PHP14.637 billion, from the PHP12.981 billion recorded a year ago. Core net income, which eliminates non-recurring charges, one-time gains, foreign exchange gains and mark-to-market charges, was up 32% to PHP14.766 billion for the January to September period, and consolidated service revenues increased 9% to PHP103.346 billion in the first nine months of 2018, ‘fuelled by the surging data revenue growth across all segments’. Globe spent ‘about PHP32.5 billion’ in capital expenditures for the first nine months of 2018, 11% lower than the same period last year. The bulk, or 78%, of CAPEX was allotted for its data-related services. To date, Globe has a total of 40,522 base stations, with close to 27,000 being 4G, to support the service requirements of its customers.
In a statement, Globe President and Chief Executive Officer Ernest Cu was quoted as saying: ‘We will remain aggressive with our network investments, which is now nearly 32% of our revenues to be able to support the growing demand for bandwidth-intensive applications and content’.