The Philippines' Globe Telecom has reported a 3% year-on-year increase in net profit and an 11% increase in revenue for the first of the year despite heightened competitive intensity.
The operator recorded net income of nearly 9 billion pesos ($191.4 million), on the back of revenue of 53.8 billion pesos. Mobile revenue also grew 3% year-on-year to 45.7 billion pesos.
Globe's prepaid brands drove revenue growth for the quarter, with TM revenues up 5% and Globe Prepaid revenues growing 3%. Postpaid revenues grew a more modest 2%.
Mobile data service revenues swelled 46% year-on-year to 12.2 billion pesos, offsetting an 11% decline in mobile voice revenue and a 16% slump in SMS revenues. Mobile data comprised 39% of total mobile revenues for the half-year period, up from 27% a year earlier.
Home broadband revenues meanwhile grew 49% year-on-year to 7 billion pesos, while total subscribers increased 38% over the same period to 1.14 million.
Corporate data revenues were up 55% to 5.9 billion pesos, driven by strong demand among Philippine enterprises for data connectivity and other telecoms services.
“We are proud that the company’s overall results in the first half remained robust amidst the heightened competitive intensity and the unique challenges and opportunities posed by increasing levels of smartphone penetration and mobile postpaid ownership in the market,” Globe president and CEO Ernest Cu commented.
“We believe that with the aid of the additional frequencies that we have recently acquired, Globe Telecom’s leadership as the preferred brand for Filipinos’ digital lifestyle choices will be strengthened moving forward.”
The operator recently committed to use its newly-acquired spectrum to achieve coverage of 95% of the Philippines' municipalities and cities by end-2018.