Research and Markets: Philippines

This report provides a comprehensive overview of the trends and developments in the telecommunications and digital media markets in the Philippines.

The last decade or so

Despite considerable effort over the last decade or so, the government of the Philippines, working with the country's telecom operators, has not succeeded in its efforts to extend the basic fixed-line telephone network to reach the wider population. Fixed-line teledensity stands at less than 5%; only a little more than half of all Philippine towns and cities have a telephone service. A fixed-line teledensity of 12% by 2002 was the original target set for the government as part of its Service Area Scheme. The plan fell well short of target and since then fixed-line penetration has remained relatively static.

The continued growth has confounded the market; there have been times when the mobile sector in the Philippines looked to have reached a plateau, but then it found a new way to grow. Of particular note in this mobile market has been the remarkably high national usae of SMS. The country is ranked number one globally in SMS usage. The other chief characteristic is the high level of prepaid users (more than 95%). The mobile phone has certainly captured the imagination of the population; not surprisingly, mobiles have well and truly overwhelmed fixed-line services.

The country has been lagging badly in its roll-out of Internet and broadband services. The year 2006 saw what was looking like the start of a significant surge in broadband subscriber numbers. This continued through 2007/08 and was looking to maintain the momentum in 2009. Despite the fresh new round of growth, overall broadband penetration remains relatively low; there were only two broadband services for every 100 people in the country early in 2009.