Smart posts P20B revenues in Q1
Published May 11, 2023 06:54 am
Despite the impact of SIM registration, high inflation and the seasonal dip in consumer spending after the Christmas holidays, Smart Communications Inc. posted stable revenues of ₱19.8 billion in the first quarter of 2023.
"For this quarter, there were two external factors that affected all telcos. The first one is SIM registration, which brought about a significant reduction in new activations. The second one is record-high inflation, which hit 8.7 percent in January, the highest in 14 years and more than double compared to the inflation we had in the same quarter of last year," explained Francis E. Flores, SVP and Head of Consumer Business Group - Individual.
"While showing some signs of easing, inflation remained elevated in February and March," he noted.
"We felt that affecting our subscribers and their wallets, especially subscribers of our value brand TNT, who were more affected by these headwinds." Despite the setbacks, Smart saw mobile data revenues growing by 4 percent to ₱17.0 billion as data usage per subscriber and data traffic continued to register year-on-year increases.
In the first quarter, mobile data traffic on Smart's network rose 18 percent to 1,191 Petabytes, demonstrating increased usage among customers and improving year-on-year trends, and helping arrest the decline of revenues compared to the same period last year. Average monthly mobile data usage per subscriber grew by 15 percent to 10.6 GB in the first quarter of 2023, from 9.2 GB for the full year 2022.
"For this quarter, there were two external factors that affected all telcos. The first one is SIM registration, which brought about a significant reduction in new activations. The second one is record-high inflation, which hit 8.7 percent in January, the highest in 14 years and more than double compared to the inflation we had in the same quarter of last year," explained Francis E. Flores, SVP and Head of Consumer Business Group - Individual.
"While showing some signs of easing, inflation remained elevated in February and March," he noted.
"We felt that affecting our subscribers and their wallets, especially subscribers of our value brand TNT, who were more affected by these headwinds." Despite the setbacks, Smart saw mobile data revenues growing by 4 percent to ₱17.0 billion as data usage per subscriber and data traffic continued to register year-on-year increases.
In the first quarter, mobile data traffic on Smart's network rose 18 percent to 1,191 Petabytes, demonstrating increased usage among customers and improving year-on-year trends, and helping arrest the decline of revenues compared to the same period last year. Average monthly mobile data usage per subscriber grew by 15 percent to 10.6 GB in the first quarter of 2023, from 9.2 GB for the full year 2022.