Philippines telco Globe Telecom said it expects a slower revenue growth in the fourth quarter due to weak consumer spending following extensive damage caused by Typhoon Yolanda (international name: Haiyan) in the Visayas region.
“Notwithstanding the usual seasonal increase in both SMS and voice traffic during the holiday season, fourth quarter revenues may not be as strong as in prior years due to softer demand for telco services in the affected areas and possible cutbacks in telco-related spending on the part of subscribers as they donate these instead to the relief and rebuilding efforts of the government and private sector,” Globe president and chief executive, Ernest Cu, said.
The typhoon damage on the network, however, is not expected to have long-term negative impact on revenues, he noted.
“As a utility company, we have made it our priority to restore mobile services in typhoon-affected areas as soon as possible. To date, restoration efforts in the Visayas region is almost complete. But while the recent event could have a side impact on the company’s revenues in the fourth quarter, we see the other market segments continuing to drive growth. Moving into 2014, we expect to sustain the positive momentum we have built over the past three years,” said Cu.
Globe has so far pledged more than 45 million pesos ($1.02 million) for various relief and rebuilding operations following the onslaught caused by Yolanda.
In the first nine-month of the year Globe reported a 48% slump in net profit to 3.5 billion pesos ($79.3 million), blaming forex losses and depreciation costs related to its extensive network transformation projects.
In a separate announcement, satellite telecom service providers SES, SpeedCast and AsiaSat said they have donated satellite and service capacity to enable NetHope - a consortium of 41 non-governmental organizations worldwide - to re-establish communication links to survivors of Typhoon Haiyan.
By utilizing the 36-MHz capacity on SES’ NSS-11 satellite donated by SES and the uplink services and ground infrastructure provided by SpeedCast and AsiaSat, NetHope will be able to provide Typhoon Haiyan survivors access to information directly.
The services and infrastructure will also support a number of other relief agencies and NGO’s working in-country, the companies said in a joint statement.