Tuesday, August 19, 2008 NTC: 70% of Pinoys use mobile phone
ABOUT 70 percent of Filipinos are using mobile phone, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) said.
NTC commissioner Ruel Canobas said the “ultimate goal of the government is not only to lower the cost of communications” but more so to reach even the far-flung areas which still have no means of communications.
NTC records showed that last year alone, the number of cellular phone subscribers nationwide has increased by nearly 15 million from the 42,868,911 recorded mobile users in 2006 to 57,344,815 subscribers last year.
This means a total of 64.76 penetration rate for the telecommunications provider.
Canobas noted that out of the 88,542,991 population last year, only 32 million are not using mobile phones.
According to the NTC, having cellular phone is no longer a status symbol right now but more of a necessity.
Smart Communications owned by telecommunication (telco) giant Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) and its subsidiary Piltel-operator of brand name Talk ‘N Text dominate the market having the highest market share followed by Ayala-owned Globe Telecoms.
From 2003 to 2007, Smart continues to show its dominance in the industry by posting an annual increase of two million to three million net additional subscribers.
Globe, on the other hand, is not far behind with an average of one million to two million net additional users yearly.
Compared to cellular phone, Canobas said fixed landline subscribers rate are not as good as mobile phone users.
He noted that for 2007, the total number of fixed line installed was only placed at 7.1 million with PLDT cornering the bulk.
Meanwhile, Canobas said they expect the penetration rate of mobile phone to further increase this year as a result of competition and the offering of more affordable phone kits and cheap rates by the telco operators. (MSN/Sunnex)
