ABS-CBNmobile to double subscriber base to 3 M

MANILA, Philippines -ABS-CBNmobile, a partnership between ABS-CBN Corp. of the Lopez family and Ayala-led Globe Telecom Inc., is looking at doubling its subscriber base to three million this year.

ABS-CBN Convergence Inc. head Carlos Katigbak said in an interview with reporters that the new telecom provider hopes to break even after hitting three million subscribers this year from a base of about 1.5 million last year.

 “We have quite a challenge this year I think our goal is to bring this up to about three million customers, double basically from where we came from last year,” Katigbak said.

He pointed out that ABS-CBNmobile is looking at a higher subscriber base to break even that is now higher compared to the earlier projection of two million subscribers.

According to him, the company is now registering lower average revenue per user (ARPU) of P65.

 “We were also targeting a higher ARPU before but given the realities now the ARPU is lower but the subscriber base is higher,” he added

For his part ABS-CBN Group chief financial officer Ronaldo Valdueza said ABS-CBNmobile has about 1.6 million to 1.7 million subscribers as of end-January.

“We are on track. Our target this year is three million subscribers,” Valdueza said.

He explained that the telecom provider is set to launch postpaid plans within the year.

The company, he added, is currently focusing on prepaid subscribers offering various products including iWant TV, iWant TXT, iWant Stars, and online messaging.

ABS-CBNmobile has partnered with SM Supermalls of retail and banking magnate Henry Sy as well as multi-level marketer Teleprenuer Corp. (TPC) to make its services available to even more Filipinos nationwide.