SMART Communications Inc. expects mobile Internet use to grow rapidly on the back of the rising popularity of smartphones, tablets and other non-computer Web-enabled devices.

In a statement, Orlando B.Vea, Smart chief wireless advisor said mobile Internet in the Philippines is still in its early days.

In the case of Smart, about three million subscribers account for the bulk of mobile internet use.

“We have a lot of headroom for growth. There are around two million more subscribers with 3G feature phones or smartphones who are not yet regularly accessing the web on the go,” Vea said.

“Plus, there are another 15 to 16 million subscribers with Web-capable feature phones who we hope to migrate to smartphones that offer a better internet experience,” he added. At end-Septembe, Smart’s mobile Internet revenues doubled from half a billion pesos last year to P1.1 billion this year.

“This explosive increase in mobile Internet usage among our subscribers indicates that as smartphones become more pervasive, more affordable and easier to use, more Filipinos use it to access the Internet and social media,” Vea said. According to the International Data Corp., the worldwide smartphone market grew by 42.6 percent in the third quarter of the year.

The IDC cited manufacturers such as Samsung, Apple, Nokia, HTC, and Research in Motion shipping an estimated 118.1 million units for the period. “Mobile connectivity has gone beyond being able to just call and text. Filipinos are intensely social. With social media penetration rate at 95 percent, virtually every Filipino that has access to the Web is on Facebook too,” said Vea.

According to the analysis and commentary site 24/7 Wall St., the Philippines now tops the list of countries where Facebook is the number one most visited website, beating even Google. The country is also the eighth most popular country for Twitter use on a global scale, with a penetration rate of 16.1 percent. Social networking is so popular among Filipinos, the country has been called ‘the Social Networking Capital of the World’.

However, “the key that will truly unleash mobile Internet in the country is to let social go mobile,” Vea said. The shift to mobile for social networking is already showing up in the numbers recently disclosed by Facebook and Twitter.

Of Facebook’s more than 800 million active users, about 350 million access the site through their mobile devices while about 55 percent of Twitter’s more than 100 million active monthly users access the microblogging site while mobile.

Smart has been pushing for mobile Internet in the last couple of years, as part of its ‘Internet for All’ advocacy. Together with parent firm Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., Smart has also embarked on a P67.1 billion network transformation program to support the rapidly growing demand for Internet services in both fixed and mobile networks.