The Philippines' Globe Telecom is expecting “mid to high single digit” topline growth for 2014, on the back of ongoing strong demand for mobile and fixed data services.
Globe's revenue grew 9% to a record 82.7 billion pesos ($1.86 billion) in FY13, and CEO Ernest Cu said he expects the company to be be able to sustain this momentum in the year ahead.
To help fulfil the demand, Globe plans to devote a sizeable portion of its capex spend for the year to enhance and expand its data network, he said. Plans include deploying additional LTE sites and making improvements to the operator's fixed broadband network.
The company's actual capex budget remains relatively unchanged from 2013 at up to $650 million.
One factor that might interfere with Globe's growth projections is the threat of regulatory action over the fair use policy attached to its “unli” mobile data contracts.
Regulator NTC has ordered Globe to submit copies of the operator's contracts with its subscribers so the body can investigate consumer complaints over Globe's 3GB per month softcap, InterAksyonreported.
Customers exceeding the limit of 1GB a day or 3GB per month are being shaped back to 2G data speeds.
NTC will probe the contracts to determine whether customers were adequately informed about the shaping policy before signing up to data plans advertised as unlimited, or whether Globe's advertising was misleading.
Globe has defended its fair use policy as being required to ensure that service quality for regular data users is not negatively impacted by the company's few data-hogging customers.