The Philippines’ Globe Telecom has added almost six million mobile connections over the past twelve months (excluding cellular M2M numbers), taking its total user base to 48.3 million and increasing its market share 3 points to 41 per cent, according to GSMA Intelligence.

The country’s second largest operator has seen 4G connections expand by almost a million to 1.3 million and 3G connections grow by more than four million to almost 21 million. Its 2G connections have remained fairly stable and account for 54 per cent of total connections.

In the last two quarters, Globe has accounted for the lion’s share of the country’s new 3G additions (72 per cent) and 45 per cent of new 4G additions.

Rival Smart
Over the last year rival Smart’s market share has dropped 3 points to 58 per cent. Its mobile connections are unchanged from 68.9 million in Q2 2014.

While it has added 1.1 million 4G connections and 3.3 million 3G connections during that time, the gains have come from its 2G base, which has dropped by 4.4 million to 38.5 million (so the operator hasn’t converted new customers from Globe). 2G makes up 55 per cent of its mobile connections.

Both operators, which together have a 99 per cent share of the mobile market, have smartphone penetration rates of 35 per cent – up from 20-25 per cent just a year ago.