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By Darwin G. Amojelar, Reporter
More Filipinos are expected to own cellular
phone units this year, but higher food prices are expected to reduce
their spending for calls and text messaging.
“There may be some slowdown in the C, D and E
markets,” Edgardo Cabarios, National Telecommunications Commission
department director, said. He added that the limited disposable
income in this segment will be spent on food.
He said the best way for telecom companies to
recover lost revenues from the mass market is to offer a pricing
scheme or services that will target the more affluent—those
belonging to A, B and upper C socio-economic brackets, as they are
likely to have disposable incomes.
But despite higher inflation, the commission
official said he sees the number of mobile phone subscribers growing
by five million to 10 million this year.
The government earlier reported that inflation
rose 6.4 percent in March owing to higher food and oil prices. For
this year, the Development and Budget Coordinating Committee
projects an inflation rate of 3 percent to 5 percent.
Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT)
recorded 30 million subscribers last year, with units Smart
Communications Inc. registering 20.3 million users and Piltel, 9.7
million. Globe Telecom Inc.’s subscribers stood at 20.3 million
and Sun Cellular’s, more than 5.5 million.
Globe and PLDT have projected lower revenues
this year because of higher food prices, the US economic slowdown
and strong peso versus the greenback.
Last year, Globe, which is partly owned by
Asia’s biggest telco, Singapore Telecommunications Ltd., posted a
P13.3-billion profit. On the other hand, PLDT, which is partly owned
by Hong Kong’s First Pacific Co. Ltd. and Japan’s NTT group, hit
a P36-billion profit. Digital Telecommunications Philippines Inc.
reported a net income of P1.17 billion last year.
The country’s three mobile phone operators
registered combined revenues of P215.4 billion last year.
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