Philippines has 109.5 Million Mobile Subscribers

The Philippines now has 110 million mobile subscribers, exceeding its population of just 100 million.  This can be explained by the fact that an average subscriber uses two or more SIMs attached on their cellular phones.

Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) said its wireless units have more than 73.4 million mobile subscribers as of June 2013.

It said the figure represents two thirds of the Philippines' total mobile market.

Globe said it has 36.1 million subscribers as of June.

Smart Communications Inc., a unit of PLDT, has 25.5 million subscribers under the Smart brand while Talk ‘N Text has 31.8 million subscribers as a result of 1.3 million net additions in the first half.

Digitel Mobile Philippines Inc., which PLDT acquired last year, listed 16.1 million subscribers under its Sun Cellular brand.

The combined subscribers of the PLDT wireless group is now more than double the subscriber base of Globe Telecom.

Only 4 million of the 109.5 million subscribers have post-paid plans.  PLDT said its wireless group maintained leadership in postpaid with a total base of 2.2 million as of end June. Globe has over 1.9 million post-paid subscribers during the same period.

PLDT said the growth of its wireless group leveraged on its more extensive and robust cellular and mobile data networks to win more subscribers.  

Smart’s fourth-generation Long Term Evolution (LTE) network now covers over 1,100 sites in 170 key cities and municipalities nationwide.

“Our sustained leadership in wireless is a reflection of our long-term strategy in combining innovative services, compelling mobile Internet content, attractive and value-for-money offerings, customizable and attractive device and plan packages and a clearly superior network,” said Orlando B. Vea, chief wireless advisor of Smart and president and CEO of Digitel.

“We are pushing growth further by launching game changing services such as Smart Music and mobile financial services,” he said.