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THE Philippine telecommunications industry is
projected to grow more than a tenth in the next five years, boosted
by text services and aggressive price drops and promotions, the
International Data Corp. (IDC) said.
The IDC’s forecast showed that
the country’s telecom market remains upbeat, with expectations of
an 11-percent compound annual growth rate in terms of revenue over
the next five years.
The international research firm
attributed the growth to the data services segment that is expected
to post better performance, boosted by strong uptake of text
messaging and Internet connectivity, coupled by price pressures and
data communication substitutions on voice services.
For the first three months of the
year, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) units Smart
Communications Inc. and Pilipino Telephone Corp. have combined
subscribers of 25.5 million, while Globe Telecommunications Inc. had
16.9 million. Sun Cellular of JG Summit Holdings Inc. has about 3
million subscribers during the period.
Edgardo Cabarios, director of the
National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) common carriers
authorization division, earlier said that mobile-phone subscribers
may grow 10 percent to 20 percent in the next three years with the
economy improving.
IDC said that new technologies
and services will come into play, although the impact on the market
will not be immediate.
Karen Rondon, senior analyst of
IDC Philippines, said with the advent of new technologies and
platforms, it will be a challenge for service providers to educate
and create market awareness on these new technologies and platforms,
which normally would and should translate to better and more
convenient ways of doing things for the end users.
“Furthermore, [service
providers] must keep in mind that at the end of the day, the total
communications service experience of the end users far outweighs any
marketing hype over new technologies and platforms,” she said.
Last year IDC estimated that the
market grew by 6 percent year on year, reaching $2.956 billion in
revenues.
The mobile services segment
continued to dominate the market, with 68-percent revenue share,
while telecom network services and Internet access services had 25
percent and 7 percent, respectively.
IDC further said that the good
market performance was mainly driven by the growth exhibited by the
data sector, which escalated by 12 percent year on year.
The growing market demand for
connectivity and sophistication of end-user telecommunications
requirements, combined with price drops and promotions, were the
main drivers for the data segment.
The voice market was inhibited by
aggressive price drops and promotions as well as the expanding
availability of alternative data means of basic communications, the
research group said.
--Darwin G. Amojelar
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