Smart, the mobile arm of PLDT, regained its spot as the largest mobile operator in the Philippines by subscribers in Q2, after Globe Telecom lost 3.1 million users since the beginning of the year.
According to GSMA Intelligence data, Smart had a 51.4 per cent market share in Q2, while Globe’s share dipped by nearly 2 percentage points from the end of 2016 to 48.2 per cent at end-June.
Globe, long the second largest mobile operator in the Philippines,pushed ahead of Smart in Q4 2016 after adding more than 10 million subscribers through 2016 to end the year with a total of 62.8 million.
Smart had 62.76 million customers at end-2016, according to the operators’ own figures. Smart hasn’t reported Q2 subs, but had 63.1 million at end-March compared with Globe’s 58.6 million.
Globe’s mobile subscriber base fell 5 per cent to 59.7 million during H1 2017.
In Q1 2017 the operator changed the way it calculates prepaid subscribers, now excluding customers who don’t reload within 90 days of a second expiry period, down from 120 days previously.
Prepaid, which accounts for 96 per cent of Globe’s total mobile subscribers, decreased 2.4 per cent year-on-year to 57.2 million at end-June.
Globe’s post paid user base also dropped 2 per cent year-on-year to 2.5 million. Its post paid base declined for six consecutive quarters starting in Q1 2016, when the numbers peaked at 2.56 million.
Both operators have about 5.2 million 4G customers, accounting for 8 per cent of their respective mobile subscriber bases, according to GSMA Intelligence.
