MANILA, Philippines — Globe Telecom said it continues to see a steady surge in mobile data traffic with more customers streaming videos on their smartphones and tablets.
Globe saw its mobile data traffic surged by 105 percent to 370 petabytes in the first quarter from 180 petabytes in the same period last year.
The Ayala-led firm said its mobile data traffic in the first quarter was also 21 percent higher than its competitor’s 304 petabytes during the same period.
“With the explosion of data traffic consumption, building more cell towers and modernizing our network infrastructure will continue to play a fundamental role in delivering superior quality of experience to our customers. This is why we will continue ramping up our network rollout and utilizing next-generation technologies to enhance the way our customers experience mobile data,” Globe president and CEO Ernest Cu said.
Fueled by the increase in data usage, Globe’s consolidated service revenues for the January to March period reached P36 billion, up 13 percent year-on-year and three percent higher from the previous quarter.
Mobile data continued to be the top contributor to the company’s total mobile business, amounting to P16.5 billion for the three-month period.
“A wide range of value-for-money surfing promos and content offers – through the company’s partnerships with local and international content providers – have helped advance this surge in consumer spending on mobile data,” Globe said.
To support customers’ rising demand for data services, Globe is investing heavily in its network with about 68 percent of its P8.8 billion in capital expenditures for the first quarter allotted for data-related services.
The amount was used to build on its network capacities and ramp up its cell site deployment to elevate the quality of experience of customers, Globe said.