Globe vs. PLDT: Which had more subscribers in 2017?

Globe Telecom and PLDT (which has mobile companies Smart Communications and Sun Cellular) have been bolstering their efforts to increase their subscriber base, and we have seen this last year that Globe had the overall upper hand in terms of key performance, while PLDT wins in terms of total subscriber count. We check their total number of users one year later, and this is what we found.

We’ve seen both of these companies unleash different prepaid and postpaid promotions that made us awe, skeptic, or curious, and we can’t help to check if these warrant the telcos more users in the past. We were able to obtain both of the companies’ 2017 SEC filings, which details not only their finances and company status but also their key performance indicators including subscriber base. With these data, we were able to compile them in a simple table:

2017 Subscribers	PLDT	Globe
Postpaid	Smart: 1,388,090 Sun: 1,129,172 Total: 2,517,262	2,484,788
Prepaid	Smart: 20,433,351 Sun: 6,535,331 Total: 26,968,682	27,909,102
Other brand/s:	TNT: 28,807,964	TM: 30,292,265
Total	58,293,908	60,686,155
vs 2016	62,763,209 (-7%)	62,798,858 (-3%)

It was a tough year for the telecommunications industry as both companies suffered losses in the number of subscribers on all segments, but Globe managed to keep its postpaid segment nearly flat with a 5,000 subscriber loss. PLDT, on the other hand, has the upper hand in terms of combined Smart and Sun postpaid users to beat the blue brand in this category.

The MVP-led PLDT suffered a huge loss in its prepaid Smart/Sun base — more than three million since 2016 — While Globe’s prepaid segment is quite steady as a lesser 450,000 Globe Prepaid subscribers had gone from the past year. Despite the losses, Globe had the smaller cuts and is now able to take the top prepaid subscriber crown from its arch-rival.

Onto their mass-targeted MNVOs, Globe’s TM has more count than PLDT’s TNT despite both networks losing more than a million subscribers from the last year. Overall, the Ayala-led telco had the smaller loss in the total number of subscribers as compared to 2016 — Globe has -3% and PLDT with -7%.

Also taken into account are individuals who use multiple SIM cards, as these figures are already baked into the numbers presented. Both telco companies acknowledge that a portion of their subscriber base uses multiple SIM cards.

In conclusion, Globe is now assumed as the top telecommunications in the country in terms of total subscriber count, while Smart still has its foothold in the postpaid race game.