PLDT expects mobile users to drop

Philippines Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) has said that while it expects to see subscribers to its mobile units Smart Communications and Philipino Telephone Corp (Piltel) increase marginally in the third quarter of this year, it expects to see them fall again in the three months to the end of the year. The operator said that subscriber numbers would fall because of the impact from the discontinuation of its SIM swap programs in May this year. The SIM swap had enabled Smart to offer a free SIM to customers willing to give up their SIM from rival companies, but the scheme had to be stopped as it proved too costly. Smart and Piltel ended the first half of the year with 20.8 million subscribers, up 1.5 million on six months earlier.