Price wars erode telecom service quality

Philippine telcos face rising pressure to cut prices without sacrificing customer experience.

The Philippines’ mobile network operator (MNO) market is projected to grow from $7.81b in 2026 to $9.58b by 2031, but rising competition is putting pressure on telcos to defend margins without sacrificing service quality.

For Edsel Paglinawan, Chief Revenue and Innovation Officer at Eastern Communications, the challenge is clear: competing on price alone risks long-term sustainability.

“In the B2B market, service quality and responsiveness are extremely critical and cannot be delivered purely through low prices,” Paglinawan said.

He warned that intense price competition in telecom and enterprise connectivity is reshaping the industry in ways that threaten customer experience and infrastructure investment.

Eastern has opted to compete on service reliability instead. In 2025, the firm exceeded its customer satisfaction target, posting a 97.6% score based on responses from more than 20% of its client base. It also closed the year with a Net Promoter Score of 78.5.

The company’s biggest innovation bet has been early deployment of enterprise-grade fiber services.

Eastern focused on dedicated internet access, fiber optic leased lines, MPLS, and data networking for BPOs, financial institutions, corporates, and government agencies, at a time when broadband reliability in the Philippines was inconsistent.

Strategic partnerships also play a central role. “I would choose strategic partners based on one core principle, does this partnership accelerate revenue growth when strengthening our enterprise positioning and network reliability advantage at the end?” Paglinawan said.

With price erosion pressuring average revenue per user (ARPU) and monthly recurring revenue (MRR), he stressed that partnerships must drive customer success, retention, and differentiation, not just lower costs.