MANILA, Philippines - Mobile phone operator Sun Cellular posted strong gains in its postpaid cellular and mobile broadband businesses in the first quarter of this year.
Postpaid cellular net service revenues rose by 20.91 percent to P1.5 billion compared with P1.25 billion for the same period last year. The number of postpaid subscribers also jumped by 26 percent to 1.41 million.
Sun Cellular officials attributed the double-digit growth to consumers’ positive take-up of Sun’s best value postpaid offerings like the Call and Surf Plan 450 as well as the best-selling Plan 350 and Group Plan 999 which are all bundled with the latest handsets available in the market.
They added that the firm’s wireless broadband business also registered robust growth. Wireless broadband subscribers increased to almost 500,000 at the end of March this year, up 61.92 percent from last year.
“We are very happy with the support the public has been giving us over the years and this motivates us to come up with even better postpaid plan offerings in the coming months” said Ricky Peña, Sun Cellular senior vice president for postpaid marketing and new business.
“Now that we have teamed up with our counterparts in the PLDT Group, our subscribers are now starting to benefit from more improved services and better value offerings,” Peña added.
Apart from the segment’s flagship services, Peña also attributed the growth of Sun Cellular’s postpaid business to the add-on mobile services that they offered in the first quarter, particularly the anti-bill shock add-on plans which he described as an innovation that addresses subscribers’ need for flexibility.
“The success of the add-on plans only shows the strength of the Sun Postpaid community, and that consumers continue to recognize that we still offer the best-value plans in the market,” Peña explained.
Last year, PLDT acquired Sun Cellular from the JG Summit conglomerate and committed to continue offering the mobile firm’s signature unlimited service packages.
“Now we are making it easier for the combined 67 million subscribers of the Smart and Sun Cellular networks to communicate with each other,” Peña added.
Recently, Sun Cellular launched “Trio” network offers that allow Sun subscribers to get in touch with their contacts from the Smart and Talk Text Networks via Stand-alone subscriptions, Add-on Plans, and even prepaid bucket loads.
“As we continue to explore synergies with our sister companies in the PLDT Group the public can expect even more value-packed postpaid offerings even as we continue to develop even better plans for our Regular and broadband postpaid customers.” Peña concluded.