The Philippines’ second largest operator Globe Telecom, benefitting from a sharp jump in data-related revenue and continued gains in market share, reported steady growth in profit and operating revenue in Q2.

Its net profit for the quarter increased 3 per cent to PHP4.6 billion ($97.7 million), while EBITDA rose 7 per cent to PHP12.5 billion. Operating revenue was flat at PHP31.4 billion.

Service revenue increased 8 per cent to PHP29.7 billion, with home broadband jumping 47 per cent to PHP3.5 billion and fixed-line voice up 28 per cent to PHP978 million. Total data revenue accounted for half of all service revenue during the quarter (up from 37 per cent a year ago).

“Globe’s overall results remained robust amidst heightened competitive intensity and the unique challenges and opportunities posed by increasing levels of smartphone penetration and mobile postpaid ownership,” said Globe president and CEO Ernest Cu (pictured below). “We believe that with the aid of the additional frequencies that we have recently acquired, Globe’s leadership… will be strengthened moving forward.”

Cu Globe CEO
Mobile service turnover fell 1 per cent to PHP22.7 billion despite mobile data revenue expanding 33 per cent to PHP8.6 billion. Mobile voice and SMS were both down sharply, 13 per cent and 21 per cent respectively. SMS accounted for about a quarter of total mobile service revenues.

Its mobile user base rose 20 per cent to 63.1 million, boosting its market share 7 points from a year ago to 48 per cent. While it added more than 12.5 million prepaid customers over the past year, it lost 760,000 million postpaid users in the first half of the year (falling to 2.5 million). Home broadband subscribers increased 6 per cent to 1.1 million.

Blended ARPU dropped 9 per cent to PHP140 ($2.90).

Capex for the first half of the year hit PHP17 billion, with 68 per cent allocated to boosting data capacity. Its 2015 capex was PHP32.1 billion. Globe has 28,992 base stations, with nearly 19,000 4G sites.

After jointly acquiring the telecoms assets from San Miguel Corp in May, Globe has fast-tracked the rollout of LTE service nationwide using the 700MHz and 2.5GHz frequencies under an NTC-approved co-use agreement. It plans to activate at least 500 cell sites nationwide this year using the 700MHz frequency. It has deployed more than 80 700MHz sites nationwide and about 600 2.6GHz sites in the Visayas and Mindanao regions.

It recently committed to providing LTE service to 95 per cent of municipalities and cities in the country by the end of 2018, using the additional spectrum it acquired from San Miguel Corp in May.