How many PLDT and Globe mobile subscribers by end of 2016?

The Philippines currently has two telecommunications giants – PLDT and Globe. Both companies have been bolstering their campaigns and services in an effort to outperform each other especially when it comes to the subscriber base. With the end of 2016, which telco dominates in that aspect? Let’s take a look at the numbers below.

Globe has publicly announced its market dominance last January, with PLDT’s MVP acknowledging the ordeal. To give you a better perspective on the subscriber count, we have obtained the 2016 SEC filings of both telecommunication companies for the fiscal year 2016, and here are the number of mobile subscribers they have declared:

As we can see in the table, PLDT had a loss of nearly 6 million subscribers last year and has been publicly said that it’s due to a cleanup in subscriber count last year to achieve higher quality subscribers. Globe Telecom, on the other hand,  gained 6.6million new subscribers.

Globe trumps PLDT in almost every category except for the Prepaid segment where the combined Smart and Sun prepaid subscribers are 1.5million more than Globe prepaid consumers. Globe’s TM mobile brand also trumps PLDT’s Talk N Text with more than two million subscribers, driven mainly by its affordable promo offerings. The total number of subscribers, including its mass market brands, only leaves Globe with more than 30,000 advantage versus the combined PLDT brands.

Also taken into account are individuals who use multiple SIM cards, as these figures are already baked into the numbers presented. The country now has a mobile penetration rate of 126% if we’re counting it by SIM cards, and both telcos acknowledge that a portion of their subscriber base uses multiple SIM cards.