Globe Telecom Inc. targets to double its broadband subscribers from 234,000 last year to almost half a million by end of 2009, said company President and CEO Ernest L. Cu.
Earlier, he has identified that broadband, the next major growth area for the telecommunications industry, is where Globe can take a lead. With just 8 percent of Filipino households having broadband connections todate, the new President seems much room for growth.
The entire Philippine broadband market shot up 67 per cent in 2008, registering a total of over 1.3 million subscribers with both data devices and pre-paid broadband subscription becoming more affordable to the masses.
Already, Globe has registered a tenfold growth in its broadband subscribers from 24,000 in 2005 to 234,000 in 2008. Fully mobile broadband subscribers have almost quadrupled, from just 6 percent, or 7,680 of the total of 128,000 subscribers in 2007 to 25 percent, or 58,500 last year.
In addition, Cu believes that net books laptop computers designed for wireless communication and internet access, “will be the key to propagating broadband use in the Philippines once the price barrier is broken.” At present, the 10 inch device still range from USD$300-400. Yet, “Net book prices are coming down and it will be interesting to see the development in this area,” he remarked.
The new Globe President pins his hopes on computer penetration skyrocketing in the country, the way wireless cellular phones did.
At present, the domestic market has 70 million Subscriber Identification Modules (SIMs) for a population of 90 million Filipinos. Eventually, “I won’t be surprised if we’ll have one computer per home,” Cu concluded.
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