Stock News 2011: Smart, HTC forge smartphone partnership

Image by Getty Images via @daylife
Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart) and leading smartphone manufacturer HTC Corporation (HTC) announced their exclusive partnership last week, with the country’s biggest mobile operator set to offer the latter’s most advanced devices to the Philippine market.

The partnership was an aggressive move on the part of the two industry leaders to drive the Philippine smartphone ‘revolution’ in a worldwide market estimated to grow 55% year-on-year this 2011.

Recently, Smart reported a 102% jump in the number of smartphone users in its network from February to May 2011, particularly those using handsets that run on Google’s Android operating system (OS).

“Our alliance with HTC is key to our smartphone strategy of providing the best network, complemented by the best plans, to power the best devices – in order to create the best customer experience,” says Orlando Vea, co-founder and Chief Wireless Advisor of Smart.

For its part, HTC has sold about 9.7 million smartphones worldwide – an increase of 192% year-on-year – a feat which it wants to repeat locally.

http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/326419/smart-htc-forge-smartphone-partnership

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Stock News 2011: Globe strengthens leadership in postpaid

Image via Wikipedia
Globe Telecom further strengthened its leadership in the postpaid segment with double-digit growth in subscriber base and revenues from last year’s levels.

As of end-March 2011, the company’s wireless postpaid base has reached 1.44 million. Subscriber base for mobile telephony was at 1.15 million, up 30% year-on-year. Total wireless postpaid revenues stood at P3.63 billion, 10% higher than last year.

Being the first to launch a suite of customizable and personalized postpaid services in the country, Globe Postpaid is expected to show strong and continued growth over the coming months ahead, as well as widen its lead over competition.

“We are very happy that our strategies and offers are well received by our subscribers. We understand that our customers are unique from one another, so as their needs and means to connect with their friends and families,” said Martha Sazon, Head of Globe Postpaid.

Globe has the most diverse offerings for its postpaid subscribers, led by the most flexible and customizable postpaid plan in the market today, the All New My Super Plan. Following the same principle of product personalization and customization is My Super Surf Plan, the country’s first-ever range of fully-customizable unlimited data plans which provide subscribers with uninterrupted mobile surfing, consumable monthly fees, bonus call and text services and add-ons in a single subscription.

http://mb.com.ph/node/321593/globe-

Stock News 2010: Digitel turns around with P334-million profit

Image via WikipediaMANILA, Philippines - Gokongwei-owned Digital Telecommunications Phils. Inc.(Digitel) posted a complete turnaround in its operations as it registered a net income of P334 million in the first quarter this year, recovering from a P286.6-million loss in the same period last year.
Revenues (service and non-service) totaled P3.9 billion, a 21.5-percent increase from the P3.2 billion generated in the first quarter last year, driven mainly by the growth in the wireless segment under the Sun Cellular brand.
Consolidated earnings before interests, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) reached P1.2 billion, a 16.7-percent growth from the P1.06 billion registered during the first quarter last year, due primarily to the higher service and non-service revenues generated by the wireless business.
While the wireless communication services business posted a net income of P531 million as against P118.5 million in the same period last year, the wireline voice business reduced its losses to P235.7 million from a loss of P429.8 million last year. The wireline data services posted a higher net income of P38.7 million from P24.7 million last year.
The wireless communication services business posted a 35.7-percent growth in operating revenues, from P2.2 billion to P3.05 billion. Net service revenues, 67 percent of which came from unlimited services, improved 35 percent, attributable mainly to the continued success of the unlimited service portfolio and increase in subscriber count.
Company officials said upgrading their services by continuously expanding network coverage through aggressive network rollouts directly contributed to the increase in subscriber base, adding that the introduction of new products was also a major factor in increasing net service revenue.
Meanwhile, the wireline voice communication services group posted a 14.6-percent decline in revenues to P742 million from P868.5 million, mainly due to lower revenues from international and domestic tolls and local exchange.
The company also reported that revenues for wireline data services for the first three months of 2010 grew 15.1 percent to P114.9 million from P99.8 million mainly due to higher revenues from new connections on domestic data and Internet, and increased IP-VPN services subscription.
Digitel is 47.45 percent-owned by conglomerate JG Summit Holdings. Its wireline services are provided through over 400,000 lines throughout Luzon while its wirelss services are provided by wholly-owned subsidiary Digitel Mobile Phils. Inc. under the Sun Cellular brand.
Mary Ann Ll. Reyes
May 18, 2010
http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleid=576066

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