The Economist Intelligence Unit forecasts that the number of mobile-phone subscribers in the Philippines will grow by 5.5% a year in 2014-18, well short of the 9.8% average annual growth recorded in 2009-13. The slowdown reflects saturation in the market; by 2013 there were an estimated 110.3 mobile subscriptions per 100 people.
Despite slower growth in subscriber numbers, in local-currency terms mobile revenue will expand by 11% a year on average in 2014-18, compared with 3.3% in 2009-13. Demand for voice and text services will weaken; instead, revenue growth will be driven by the launch of new products, notably 4G devices that offer wireless broadband connectivity. A local firm, Smart, launched the first commercially available 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) network in the Philippines in 2012. The use of text messaging, which for cost reasons is much more intensively used than mobile voice services, is in decline. The State of the Global Mobile Union 2012 report estimates that the average Filipino mobile-phone user sent and received about 400 text messages per month in 2011, down from a peak of 660 in 2010. Mobile Internet communication is displacing text messaging as smartphone penetration grows.

Telecommunications report 2

Mobile 2

Fixed 3

Internet 4

Industry publishing schedule 6

中国科学技术信息研究所