PLDT Group corners 55% of mobile postpaid market

MANILA, Philippines - Dominant carrier Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) cornered 55 percent of the mobile postpaid market in the country last year after its wireless arms booked a 17-percent increase in subscriber growth.

PLDT executive vice president Charles Lim said Smart Communications Inc. and Digitel Mobile Philippines Inc. (Sun Cellular) gained 387,000 new postpaid subscribers, bringing its subscriber base to 2.8 million or 55 percent of the total Philippine mobile postpaid market last year.

The PLDT Group’s wireless subscriber base stood at 69.9 million last year consisting of 67.1 million prepaid subscribers and 2.8 million postpaid subscribers.

Smart booked net additional subscribers of 419,000 to 25.9 million subscribers while Sun Cellular registered net additional subscribers of 728,000 to 15.8 million. Talk ‘N Text had a subscriber base of 28.1 million.

In terms of postpaid subscribers, Smart booked 150,000 net additional subscribers to over one million while Sun Cellular registered 237,000 additional subscribers to 1.7 million last year.

The total service revenues of PLDT’s wireless segment slipped P1.6 billion to P115 billion last year amid the decline in short messaging service (SMS) and voice revenues.

Prepaid revenues declined six percent to P79.1 billion while postpaid revenues jumped 14 percent to P21.7 billion last year.

“The gains posted by Smart and Sun in 2014 are attributed to PLDT’s integrated wireless network with unparalleled capacity, reach and resiliency, and premium-packed device and content offers,” he said.

Lim, who also heads the wireless consumer division of both Smart and Sun, said Smart unveiled a strong lineup of smartphone offerings for all types of postpaid users, including flagship devices such as the Samsung Galaxy S5, the Samsung Galaxy Note 4, the Sony Xperia Z1 and Z2, and the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.

Smart also introduced best-value postpaid plans that came with power-packed entry-level handsets, data allowance, and access to unlimited music streaming via Spinnr. It also gave postpaid subscribers access to 35 million songs via global music streaming service Deezer.

To further bolster its postpaid growth, Smart recently introduced a revitalized postpaid lineup with better handset choices, bigger data volume allowances, and even FREE music streaming via Deezer for two years.

On the other hand, Sun offered its postpaid subscribers wearable devices through affordable and value-packed packages to empower more Filipinos with the latest technology.

In support of its expanded folio of device and services, Sun Cellular also increased retail presence during the year with the launch of the Sun Shop on Wheels – a new retail channel designed to provide the same in-store services as the regular Sun Shops.

To complement the device and plan offers introduced in 2014, Smart and Sun Cellualr unveiled digital content services changing the way Filipino mobile users live and communicate.