Mobile data use surged 173% during Christmas

Globe Telecom reported a 173% jump in mobile data use during the Christmas holidays, reflecting a huge demand for mobile internet services and rapid changes on how Filipinos communicate.In comparison, voice and text, what once the norm for Filipinos in regards to greeting loved ones and friends, grew a mere of 15% and 1%, respectively, year-on-year.In a statement, Globe chief technical adviser Robert Tan attributed the lackluster growth to messaging alternatives such as Facebook, Twitter, Skype and Viber now made more accessible via mobile devices.“There has been a notable change in customers’ behavior in sending holiday greetings as they now turn to their smartphones, tablets and computers to send Christmas greetings through online applications such as Facebook, Twitter and other messaging applications.”“The increase in data traffic reflects the steady rise in demand for mobile Internet services, growing popularity of smartphones, tablets and online social applications as well as the expanded coverage of the company’s fourth-generation (4G) infrastructure through the combined technology of long-term evolution (LTE) and high-speed packet access plus (HSPA+),” Globe said.Globe has been aggressively beefing up its mobile internet services with key partnership with some of the internet’s biggest names.Last October, Globe gave its over 36 million subscribers free access to Facebook on mobile phones for the next three months through an exclusive deal with the social media network. In another partnership, Globe chose the Globe as the first telco in the world to test Google Free Zone, which allows users to access Gmail, Google+ and Google search for free on their mobile phones.In the nine months to September, Globe’s mobile data revenues accounted for 56% or P30 billion of its total mobile service revenues, an increase of 16% from P25.8 billion a year earlier.