Globe bucks global telco slowdown

MANILA, Philippines — Ayala-led Globe Telecom said it was able to buck global market predictions of a financial slowdown in the telecommunications industry after its overall service revenues rose steadily in the past five years. 

Globe said it witnessed a 9.1 percent compounded annual growth rate (CAGR), which shows the rate of return of an investment over a certain period of time, for its overall service revenues from 2014 to 2018, higher than the 5.6 percent it recorded from 2009 to 2013. 

The telco firm said its performance disproved predictions made by analysts from Ovum, a London-based independent consultancy firm specializing in telecommunications, back in 2013 which indicated that no other region in the world but Africa will see revenue growth at a CAGR above three percent between 2012 and 2018, and that service revenues of operators globally will contract in 2018 for the first time in the history of mobile industry.

Globe said its strong performance was propelled by innovative mobile strategies such as customized mobile plans and promos, wider content offerings, and streamlined customer experience.

 “We are proud that our strategy of disrupting the telco business model delivered consistent financial results in the past five years,” Globe president and CEO Ernest Cu said. 

“With our unwavering commitment to bring our customers better quality of experience, we will continue making positive strides in the ICT and digital space. We will step up our efforts on managing costs, growing revenues, and driving efficiencies to fuel further our digitalization efforts for our customers,” Cu said.

The company said rapid growth in service revenues is key in fueling investments for better innovations in digital solutions, wider access to content, more bundled offers, and better quality of user experience. 

To further meet the customer demand for more bandwidth-intensive content, Globe raised its capital expenditure guidance to P63 billion this year.

Globe registered a net income of P18.6 billion in 2018, a 22 percent increase from the previous year’s P15.08 billion.

Total consolidated service revenues jumped by 10 percent year-on-year to P140.2 billion which was attributed to data-related services across all business segments, pervasive 4G/LTE network, and wide array of content offerings through partnerships with industry leaders and global content brands.

Globe last year started delivering cloud-based intelligent omni-channel routing and interactions management to boost customer experience.