In light of the increasing smartphone penetration in the country and growing popularity of internet access via the mobile phone, Globe Telecom looks at its mobile browsing business to bolster business growth and sustain momentum amid an increasingly competitive and mature mobile market.
According to Globe president and CEO Ernest Cu, the company’s mobile browsing segment became the fastest-growing product line in Globe in the first quarter of 2013 with a robust double-digit growth in revenues year-on-year, outpacing the already phenomenal revenue growth of its postpaid and broadband businesses. Mobile browsing and other data revenues now account for 13% of total mobile revenues, up from 12% in 4Q12 and 10% in 1Q12.
Responding to the growing demand for instant access to social networking accounts on mobile, Globe beefed up its mobile browsing plans SuperFB for prepaid subscribers and AstigFB for TM subscribers by offering longer denomination variants at a much affordable price. For only P15, Globe prepaid and TM subscribers can now enjoy unlimited access to Facebook on mobile for 2 days. The 1-day variant is available for P10.
For users who browse other sites aside from Facebook, Globe boosted its data plan offerings with PowerSurf Megabytes, or mobile browsing plans that give prepaid and postpaid subscribers bulk megabytes (MB) of mobile data that is consumable per kilobyte (KB). With PowerSurf MB, subscribers only pay for actual data used. This means subscribers can comfortably leave their mobile data connection enabled and enjoy features like push notifications or background syncing without accumulating an expensive bill.
Prepaid subscribers can choose from the following affordable PowerSurf plans: 20MB for P15 valid for 1 day, 50MB for P30 also valid for 1 day, and 100MB for P50 valid for 3 days. Prepaid and Postpaid subscribers looking for plans with higher MB allocation and longer validity can avail of the following 30-day PowerSurf variants: 50MB for only P99, 300 MB for only P299, and 1GB for only P499.
Finally, first-time users can take advantage of the telco’s Plan Profiler and Device Simulator available on the Globe Mobile Internet portal (http://surf.globe.com.ph) to learn more about mobile browsing. The Data Plan Profiler (http://surf.globe.com.ph/profiler/index) provides questions for users to find out their total mobile data usage and the perfect data plan based on their profile and needs. On the other hand, the Device Simulator (http://surf.globe.com.ph/tools/device-simulator) allows users to set-up mobile internet access such as e-mail configuration, managing push notifications, syncing social networking accounts, and manually adjust settings.
“We are happy to see how our mobile browsing business has grown and how our offers have seen strong take-up among subscribers. Gone are the days when mobile browsing is feared by many because of billshock or the lack of understanding on how it works. With the growing penchant of Filipinos for smartphones and instant internet access, we are seeing a bright potential for mobile browsing as the next big thing for Globe and the industry in general,” said Jenny Granada-Echevarria, head of Globe Mobile Data Services.
Providing strong backend support to its mobile browsing offers is the completion of the first phase of the company’s massive network modernization program. To date, over 60% of the Globe network is already running on 4G HSPA+ which provides faster mobile browsing experience for customers.
