Smart users found jumping ship to Globe

Globe Telecom reported that subscribers from Smart Communications are jumping ship despite its rival's alleged aggressive switching campaigns last year.A Nielsen survey said 49% of people who switched to Globe from a another telco came from Smart, shrugging of flak and bad publicity Globe President Ernest Cu (pictured) blames on the competition.Smart saw marketing opportunities from Globe's signaling woes in 2012 as frustrated subscribers took to social media and other mediums to vent about service kinks caused by its $700 million network upgrade which started two years ago.Seeing the results despite the offensive, Cu said the growth was a "huge source of inspiration and motivation.""Globe continues to reinforce its position as a strong and formidable challenger in the market with sustained subscriber gains despite the aggressive switching campaigns and negative tirades of our competitors," said Globe President Ernest Cu.The survey came just days after Globe launched an integrated PR campaign in response to flak from service kinks caused by its multi-million network upgrade.Against all odds Globe said the switching campaign ran from July to December. To track the impact of Smart's campaign, the telco commissioned Nielsen to do a year-long survey with 12,937 respondents in both urban and rural areas.Even at the height of the campaign in the second quarter ranging from discounted offers to targeted messaging both offline and online, Globe's postpaid segment added nearly 135,000 subscribers.Its prepaid and TM segments (TM targets the middle income market) has similar success, acquiring a combined 1.3 million subscriber base during the same period.Globe closed the year with a total of 3.1 million subscribers and 1.7 million broadband subscribers, 10% and 18% from the previous year respectively. Consolidated service revenues soared to an all-time high of P82.7 billion, 6% above P77.8 billion year-on-year.