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In a sign of technology’s perseverance in this slower economy, the Philippine telecommunications market is expected to grow at about 4.8 percent per year through 2013, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based research firm predicts.

 

Officials at Pyramid Research say in their so-called “Country Intelligence Report” –available here – that the Philippine market will generated about $5.6 billion last year.

 

According to the report’s author and a vice president at the firm, Leslie Arathoon, 2009 will be a difficult year for the Philippine market when measured in U.S. dollar terms, given the combined effects of the peso’s expected devaluation against the dollar and continued pressure on voice tariffs.

 

“Pyramid expects the proliferation of 3G and wireless broadband technologies such as WiMax to boost revenue again in 2010, with the fastest growth coming from VoIP services (32.8 percent service revenue CAGR between 2008-2013), fixed broadband services (16.2 percent CAGR), and mobile data (9.6 percent CAGR),” Arathoon said.

 

Today’s report from Pyramid is one of several studies emerging that’s calling for a difficult 2009 for telecom, but a strong rebound starting next year.

 

As TMCnet reported today, though revenue from optical transport equipment is expected to decline this year, the market will rebound in 2010 and continue growing for the following three years, a Redwood City, California-based research firm reportedly says.

 

Officials at Dell’Oro Group say worldwide revenue from the data-carrying fiber technology will drop 9 percent in 2009 but will grow to reach $14.5 billion in 2013.

 

We who cover the telecom space daily aren’t surprised to see that VoIP is driving the spread of 3G and wireless technologies in the Philippines. We’ve already seen in this slower economy that VoIP, mobility, telepresence and other video-based communications solutions are emerging as attractive cost-savers.

 

As TMC (News - Alert) President Rich Tehrani says in a blog entry this week, one way that all companies can retain existing customers and gain market share in this recession is by generating positive news.

 

“If sales are generally good now, it makes even more sense to focus on putting a halo around your brand to protect it from bad times which may or may not be ahead,” Tehrani writes. “Customer wins, new product launches, a new green data center, a widget that does something useful – if you have any of these, issue a release and try to get some positive media coverage.”

 

So companies must continue to market, Tehrani said, and honestly ask themselves this question: “Would you buy from you?”

 

According to Pyrmaid, Philippine mobile subscriber uptake is relatively modest for Southeast Asian standards.

 

Arathoon said that penetration stood at 75 percent in late 2008, putting it ahead of neighboring markets such as Indonesia and Vietnam yet behind Thailand and Malaysia.

 

“Despite its rather unimpressive penetration level, the Philippines is known to be home to the world’s most prolific users of SMS service – in 2008, SMS usage reached nearly 400 messages per month, compared with average MOU of less than 30 minutes per month,” Arathoon said.