Mobile data traffic of Globe Telecom Inc. grew 44 percent in 2016 to 361 petabytes from 252 PB a year earlier as smartphone penetration reached 61 percent last year, indicating that more and more Filipinos are now gaining access to the internet through their mobile devices.
The significant increase in mobile data traffic follows the company’s aggressive network enhancement build in a bid to boost capacities and expand coverage.
“This validates Globe Telecom’s position as the country’s top mobile company and as the network of choice by smartphone users,” said Globe president and chief executive officer Ernest Cu.
He said the data also reflected the company’s endeavor to continue improving the state of internet in the country.
“Our efforts are bearing fruit and we expect mobile internet experience to improve further moving forward as we continue with the aggressive deployment of LTE sites in major cities, thereby, providing better indoor signal and larger capacity,” Cu said.
Burgeoning mobile data traffic also corroborated a special report released by social media management platform Hootsuite and UK-based consultancy firm We are Social that more and more Filipinos were accessing the internet through their mobile devices.
According to the report, total mobile subscription was now at 129.4 million as of January 2017, a 9 percent increase from a year earlier based on a total country population of 103 million.
The report said 60 million or 58 percent of total population had access to the internet, a 27-percent increase from a year earlier, while 54 million were active mobile social users, up 32 percent from a year earlier.
The report said the share of web traffic by device indicated that the number of Filipinos accessing the internet through their mobile devices were steadily growing.