PLDT Inc. wireless unit Smart Communications Inc. said its digital transformation initiatives are paying off as mobile internet is now its main revenue growth driver, surpassing the decline in traditional call and text.
As of end-2019, data revenues now make up 69 percent of total revenues of the Consumer Wireless Group, which posted total revenues of P72.1 billion last year, up 20 percent year-on-year.
Mobile data traffic on Smart’s network hit a record-high of 1.6 exabytes (1,612 petabytes) in 2019, double the 824 petabytes posted in 2018 and more than four times compared to 2017 levels.
In the fourth quarter of 2019 alone, Smart said mobile data traffic reached 506 petabytes, up 16 percent over the previous quarter and up 87 percent from the same quarter in 2018.
It attributed the exponential growth in data traffic to video streaming, social networking and gaming — activities which need the support of robust networks to ensure quality customer experience.
“Our sustained network improvement efforts over the past several years have given us the crucial advantage — enabling us to offer compelling data service offers that address our customers’ passions and pain points. This has powered our current revenue growth and is positioning us well for the future,” said Alfredo Panlilio, Smart president and chief executive officer and PLDT chief revenue officer.
Smart said mobile data usage also grew rapidly on the back of its GIGA data service offers that address customers’ growing demand for various internet services.
GIGA started in 2018 with video packages that offered free Youtube as well as other popular video services, and was followed by other GIGA data packages that bundled mobile games such as Mobile Legends and social media apps like Facebook, Instagram and Tiktok.
“Moving forward, we aim to further improve the experience of our customers by helping them to shift to LTE (Long-Term Evolution) handsets and SIMs and by providing increasingly rich GIGA data offers that enable people to effectively address their various life needs all through the mobile phone in their hands,” said Jane Basas, Smart senior vice president for consumer individual wireless business.
To support our customers’ growing data habit as well as the increasing number of LTE smartphone users among Smart, Sun and TNT customers, PLDT and Smart have continued to expand their fixed and mobile networks across the country.
In 2019, PLDT increased its total fiber footprint by 32 percent to 322,400 kilometers, the country’s most extensive digital backbone and transport network.
Smart also expanded its coverage and capacity further by increasing the number of its 4G/LTE stations by 51 percent to about 24,600, as well as its 3G base stations by about 19 percent to 13,800. As of end-December 2019, Smart’s mobile coverage has expanded to 94 percent of the country’s population.
Smart said its LTE rollout has also been enhanced by the activation of LTE’s carrier aggregation feature, which enables the combination of the capacity of up to five LTE base stations to deliver faster data speeds.
Smart’s network is supported by PLDT’s fiber infrastructure, which provide high-capacity links for LTE base stations.
Smart said this sustained LTE rollout has enabled it to provide better internet services, as also cited by several international internet analytics firms. Ookla cited PLDT and Smart for being the fastest fixed and mobile networks in the Philippines in two reports covering the first and second halves of 2019.
PLDT’s sustained level of investments in the country’s telecommunications infrastructure now totals P257.7 billion over the last five years.
For 2020, PLDT has allocated a larger capital expenditure of P83 billion to serve better the fast-growing data usage of customers and continue to provide superior data CX.
This amount includes allocations for network and IT projects to support the explosive growth in data traffic, as well as allocations for broadband installations which are projected to grow strongly in 2020.
