MANILA, Philippines—Despite falling behind its rivals in terms of government benchmark scores for basic voice services, Globe Telecom continues to be seen by the public as the “better” network in delivering high-speed wireless broadband services, according to a recent Nielsen survey.
Results of a recent brand health study survey by Nielsen showed that most people considered Globe as the brand that is a leader in 4G—“the brand that has the biggest 4G network,” “the brand that was first to offer 4G,” “fast Internet downloading using my cellphone,” and “fast Internet uploading using my cellphone.”
Results showed that Globe “had a clear and significant edge over its rival on the abovementioned qualities,” Globe said in a statement over the weekend.
In other statements on brand imagery such as call connections and quality, SMS transmission, signal quality, coverage, load sending and receiving, Globe was at par with its rival, the company said, citing Nielsen’s results.
“Contrary to generalized claims propagated in late 2012 by its competitor, Globe is actually perceived to be better with its 4G offerings, such as its leadership in fourth generation (4G) technology, better mobile Internet services, and perceived to be at par in a number of significant qualities by Metro Manila prepaid and postpaid subscribers,” Globe said.
The survey covered mostly prepaid subscribers, who were subjected to face-to-face interviews.
“It is outright preposterous to claim being the ‘better network’ when consumers feel and experience that this is not so,” Globe spokesperson Yoly Crisanto said, referring to the remarks made by rival Smart Communications.
Globe declined to give other details about the survey, which was conducted last September. The company likewise declined to say who commissioned the survey.
Reacting to Globe’s statements, Smart Communications public affairs head Ramon Isberto said the company was not privy to the said Nielsen survey.
“What is worth pointing out, however, is that the survey covers people’s perceptions. And while perceptions are relevant, what is more important is reality,” Isberto said.
“And the reality is Smart’s network has consistently performed better,” he added, citing tests by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) that showed Smart to be ahead of Globe in five different parameters testing basic voice services for the last two quarters.
He added that Smart was also far ahead of Globe in deploying LTE, as experienced by subscribers.
As of the start of April, Smart’s LTE network covered 46 cities and 69 municipalities.
“This nationwide footprint is much larger than the competition,” Isberto said, referring to Globe.