Globe revives Facebook, spices it up with Viber

MANILA, Philippines - Ayala-led Globe Telecom Inc. is reviving and spicing up its “Free Facebook” offer after dominant carrier Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) extended its “Free Internet” promo until next month.

Globe chief operating advisor Peter Bithos announced yesterday that the “Free Facebook” promo would be revived starting Jan. 13 together with the “Free Viber” to all subscribers.

“Starting Jan. 13 – and for an entire month – our world-renowned Free Facebook is back. But, this time, we have decided to spice it up a bit.  In the month leading up to Valentine’s Day, we are also offering Free Viber for all Globe customers in the Philippines,” Bithos said.

Just like the previous promos, Bithos said the “Free Facebook” and “Free Viber” have no strings attached.

“And always with Globe, we make it easy for you - no purchase required, no promo required, no daily registration required, and available to all Globe customers (mobile and Tattoo)... plus, it comes with all our love and affection,” he added.

According to him, Globe has been the leader in mobile internet, 4G and countless digital experiences from Free Facebook to Spotify, and the latest partnership with the National Basketball Association (NBA).

Globe’s subscriber base jumped 17 percent to 42.85 million in the first nine months of 2014 from 36.52 million in the same period in 2013. Prepaid users grew 18 percent to 40.69 million, while postpaid subscribers rose nine percent to 2.16 million.

Its core income surged 22 percent to P11.58 billion from January to September last year from P9.53 billion in the same period in 2013 as service revenues grew eight percent to hit a historic high of P72.7 billion from P67.26 billion.

Last Monday, the PLDT Group announced that it was extending its “Free Internet” promo by another month or until Feb. 5 to benefit its 69 million mobile subscribers of Smart, Talk ‘N Text, and Sun Cellular.

It could be recalled that no less than PLDT chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan announced last Sept. 26 that the company would offer free Internet access to the 66 million prepaid subscribers until Nov. 30.

Last Oct. 3, PLDT expanded its free internet service to all the 72 million prepaid, postpaid, and broadband subscribers of Smart, Talk ‘N Text, and Sun Cellular. The promo was also extended all the way to Jan. 5 instead of Nov. 30 only.

Mobile data traffic surged 112 percent to 27,000 terabytes in the first nine months of 2014 from 13,000 terabytes in the same period in 2013 as over a fourth of the 69 million subscribers of Smart and Sun Cellular are already using smartphones.

The PLDT Group earlier decided to raise its capital expenditures this year to P34.5 billion or P2.5 billion higher compared to the original budget of P32 billion.