Despite strong subscriber growth, Globe Telecom's net income slumped 9 percent to P16 billion in the first nine months of the year due to continued investments in its broadband business and lower usage by mobile subscribers.

The country's second biggest telecommunications provider said profits for the July to September period declined by 8 percent to P2.6 billion as revenue sources, including fees from text messages, calls, broadband use, posted flay growth compared to the three months prior. 

The Ayala-led company, however, registered an additional one million subscribers in the third quarter, bringing its total wireless subscribers to 23.75 million as of September. 

Globe's chief executive officer Gerardo Ablaza said that the strong subscriber take up during the period has been "encouraging" since this occured as the economic environment started getting tougher. 

However, Globe said that average revenue per user (ARPU), a measure of the company's average earnings from each subscriber, has been sliding. For postpaid clients, ARPU has decreased 7 percent to P1,390 a month for postpaid clients, while pre-paid subscribers, which account for bulk of their Globe users portfolio, was down 4 percent to P197.

Touch Mobile, Globe's affordable brand, also posted lower ARPU at P98, about 8 percent less than the second quarter.  

While subscriber usage and activity levels continued to be soft compared to last year because of the more challenging macro-environment and intense competition, the company's consolidated service revenues in the third quarter was steady relative to the second quarter, breaking the trend of a seasonally leaner third quarter. Thus, Globe posted total revenues of P46.6 billion for the nine months, 2 percent lower than the same period last year. 

The soft growth in revenues from the wireless business was partly cushioned by the 5 percent revenue growth of the wireline business, as the broadband and corporate data segments had robust performances  

The wireline services contributed revenues of P1.8 billion to the group. Ablaza also said the broadband subscriber base has grown 41 percent in the third quarter to 154,000 compared to the same period last year.   

The wireless business earns a healthy margin of 67 percent of revenues. 

Margins from its broadband business was diluted to 61 percent from last year's 65 percent as Globe continued to invest in broadband infrastructure. 

One million more subscribers

Of the additional one million wireless subscribers in the third quarter, more than 800,000 were contributed by the Touch Mobile brand, which pushed a sales campaign during the period. This was the highest quarterly performance for the Touch Mobile brand.  

Meantime, of the total 23.75 million users as of end-September, postpaid subscribers are tracking closer to the 750,000 mark. Globe has been edging rival Smart Communication for its postpaid portfolio.

Globe's additional postpaid subscribers, net of those that signed out during the third quarter, accounted for a 20 percent growth over the second quarter levels. 

"We are encouraged by this quarter's strong subscriber growth and steady revenues despite a tougher economic and competitive environment." Gerardo C. Ablaza, Jr., President and CEO of

Globe Telecom, Inc. said. "We remain committed to improving further our executional capabilities to make our business more resilient and better placed to meet the challenges that lie ahead." said Mr. Ablaza.

Marketing efforts, iPhone sales

Globe initiated various programs for its various markets to encourge them to use the service more often. 

For the mass markets, Globe aggressively campaigned in the rural markets and highlighted the Touch Mobile brand. 

For the postpaid market, the company introduced unlimited texting and lower call rates during nights and weekends. 

For the mid to high-end markets, Globe introduced the Apple iPhone 3G last August 22. Sales have exceeded expectations, providing further lift to this quarter's subscriber net additions, as well as notable increases in the Company's browsing and value-added service revenues. 

Banking on the youth segment, Globe launched a series of campaigns centered on matching the youth lifestyle. Its Connected24Ever proposition features an integrated mobile and internet offering enabling the youth to keep in touch with their friends through unlimited updates to popular social networking sites like Facebook and Friendster and all-day chat via Yahoo! Messenger.