Mobile operators in Philippines experience a slow growth in number of new subscribers in Q3′08. According to the executives of the two leading mbile operators, the slow down has been due to pressures on consumer spending.
President of Smart Communication, Napoleon Nazareno, says the company has experienced a soft Q3, adding only a million new subscribers between July and September, off from the 1.6 million added in Q2.
“We had soft net additions in terms of subscriber take-up. The churn rate could have been one of the factors also, aside from seasonality because we have had typhoons and spending was tightened because of school expenses,” said Nazareno.

Meanwhile, Gerardo Ablaza, president of Globe Telecom reportedly said the company likely failed to match the 1.5 million subscribers added in the April-June quarter. “I think third-quarter subscriber take-up will be okay, but not as strong as the record second-quarter figures,” he said.
Ablaza said the priority in the coming months will be to drive subscriber usage “and generate momentum to put us back on the growth track.”
Both the leading operators have now planned to provide more affordable service packages to the accelerate the subscriber growth.

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