RP telecom sector seen to expand in next 5 years
MANILA – The Philippine telecom industry is expected to expand in the next five years mostly because of wireless broadband services amid maturing market, according to Frost & Sullivan.
Marc Einstein, industry manager ICT Practice of Frost & Sullivan in Asia and Pacific, told reporters that there is still growth in the Philippine telecom industry despite the near maturity of the market.
“The mobile penetration rate in the Philippines is about 80 percent in the beginning of the year. It should be 96 percent by the end of the year. So, we are seeing the market get relatively saturated,” Einstein said.
He added there is still some growth because a lot of the 96 percent has two or three subscribers identification module (SIM) cards.
By 2015, the country’s mobile penetration rate is expected to hit 126 percent.
Einstein said the growth in telecom industry will be driven by mobile broadband Internet services.
While the Philippines remains a huge prepaid mobile market, Frost & Sullivan said it is expected to remain so until 2015.
It added the rise of mobile internet and broadband is likely to influence an increase in postpaid numbers in 2015.
Nitin Bhat, partner at Frost & Sullivan, said global data is projected to increase to 55 percent of the total average revenue per user.
He said the increase is a result of rising voice usage, texts bundling and mobile internet adoption.
Bhat,however, said mobile operators need to ensure that their back-haul networks are upgraded to cater to this increase in data traffic.
“Falling to do so would aggravate a dump pipe risk,” Bhat said.
Einstein said mobile data in the Philippines is over 50 percent of ARPU with non-messaging contribution currently at an estimated level of seven percent.
The country also has the highest data usage figures in this area with 54 percent of the total data usage in the region coming from the Philippines.
Gamaliel A. Cordoba, NTC commissioner, projected that the number of mobile phone subscribers will still register a double-digit increase by end of 2010.
As of 2009, the country’s cellular phone subscribers hit 77.04 million, up 13.14 percent compared the 68.09 million subscribers in 2008.
He added that the number of broadband service subscribers will continue to register three-digit growth in the next two to three years.
The country’s broadband subscribers stood at 3.6 million last year, up by 102.81 percent compared to the 1.77 million in 2008.
“This is where the future lies,” Cordova said.
In a survey done by Universal Maccann showed that more than four million Filipinos are active Internet users in the country, helped by the various social networking sites and available online video capabilities.
Of this number, 98 percent watch videos over the Internet, or higher than the global average of 82.8 percent.
China and Spain followed with 89.1 percent and 84.1 percent, respectively.
Filipinos also enjoy uploading videos, according to the survey, trailing only Korea, which topped this category.
About 67.51 percent of Filipino active Internet users uploaded or shared videos, almost double the global average of 35 percent.
Koreans are the most active in uploading videos at 70.98 percent.*PNA
