Globe Telecom booked strong profit and mobile revenue growth in the first three months of 2019, attributing the gains to its continued network investment to meet rising data demand.

Net income grew 44 per cent year-on-year to PHP6.7 billion ($129 million). Consolidated service revenue increased 13 per cent to PHP36 billion, with mobile service turnover up 11 per cent to PHP27 billion.

A 44 per cent jump in mobile data revenue to PHP16.5 billion more than offset sharp declines in voice (15 per cent) and SMS (22 per cent mobile).

Ernest Cu, Globe Telecom president and CEO (pictured, right), said: “I am delighted to report another remarkable performance for the first three months of 2019 with revenues and margins growing beyond our expectations.”

He added that for 2019 “we are confident in our ability to maintain this strong growth momentum with the aggressive investments in the network, coupled with the evolving lifestyle bundles that aim to strongly influence” the digital life of Filipinos.

Cu said the company plans to run a commercial 5G pilot in June.

Mobile data in Q1 accounted for 61 per cent of mobile service revenue (up from 47 per cent in Q1 2018), and 46 per cent of total revenue.

The operator added 20.2 million mobile subscribers year-on-year, ending March with 83.5 million. Prepaid accounted for 20 million of the net additions.

Its market share rose from 52.6 per cent in Q1 2018 to 57 per cent at end-March.

Prepaid ARPU fell 8.8 per cent year-on-year to PHP114, while post-paid slipped 7 per cent to PHP889.

Capex in Q1 totalled PHP8.8 billion, or 24 per cent of top-line revenue, with 68 per cent related to increasing data capacity.

For the full year, Globe forecasts service revenue to increase at a high single-digit rate.