PLDT’s first quarter earnings as presented by the company’s top executives led by Alfredo S. Panlilio, PLDT and Smart president and CEO on May 4 showed Home’s fiber-only service revenues growth of 14 percent, or P1.6 billion to P12.8 billion. Fiber-only revenues accounted 85 percent of total Home revenues of P15.0 billion, which was 6 percent or P0.8 billion higher than the previous year.
Jeremia dela Cruz, FVP and head of PLDT Home said the company foresees further growth in Home revenues given the wide array of affordable wireless products offered by PLDT/Smart, and continuing market demand as well.
“We believe that there is still room to grow the home broadband business as the market remains underpenetrated, albeit unserved demand sits at the lower segments of the market which are more sensitive to inflation. This is where PLDT can leverage its unique competitive advantages of having strong brand equity in the market as well as the ability to offer a range of fixed and wireless products to address market affordability consideration,” dela Cruz said.
As of March, this year, subscribers for PLDT’s Home Fiber reached 3 million with 81,000 fiber net additions for the first quarter. The number according to PLDT grew by three folds compared to the same period lastyear. The growth can be attributed to “lower churn” and “higher migrations”, the company said. Subsequently, the total number of fiber ports rose to 6.1 million covering up to 17,900 barangays nationwide.
The company happily announced that due to its aggressive network expansion initiatives, PLDT achieved a five-peat win at the Ookla Speedtest Awards 2022 - a first for the Philippines - after dominating the Ookla@Speedtest Awards for five consecutive years.
PLDT’s enterprise buoyed by data and ICT also displayed strong growth. Data and broadband, which grew by 6 percent or ₱2.2billion to ₱38.5 billion, contributed 82 percent of consolidated service revenues, the company reported.
Mitch Locsin, FVP and Head of PLDT Enterprise also announced the coming in of
Multisys Corporation is an affiliate of PLDT in the roster of PLDT enterprises. Established in 2010, Multisys offers a wider range of end-to-end digital productivity applications, copyrighted platforms, and transformative solutions that cater to the demands of businesses, small to medium-sized enterprises, and government agencies. “We are very proud to support Multisys,” said Locsin. “The addition of the Multisys suite of services completes and complements our digital transformation product portfolio,” she added.
Speaking at the presentation and briefing Panlilio announced PLDT’s first quarter financial standing including PLDT’s core income of P8.6 billion which is 5 percent higher than the previous year, 2 percent growth of consolidated EBITDA atP26 billion, net income at P 9 billion, 2023 CAPEX guidance at P80-P85 billion, and first quarter CAPEX at P19.3 billion.
“Because of soaring inflationary pressures, we must strive to attain cost-efficiency and operational excellence in order to provide leveled-up customer experiences while keeping our products and services affordable for our subscribers. We continue with our transformation initiatives to strengthen our core business as we plan for our growth strategies,” Panlilio said.
PLDT he said is moving forward starting end of March working on the goal of bringing new products and innovations and remaining strong in terms of core income and EBITDA numbers.
“We are moving forward now starting end of March. We will showcase our commitment did define our purpose last year and that we are a Filipino company inspiring innovations and connections to generations. Our purpose is to drive business priorities for shaping the market in terms of bringing new products and innovations. Will also focus also on continued growth in our core and remain to be strong and deliver strong EBITDA numbers,” Panlilio said.
Additionally, he said PLDT will focus on its three pillars of transformation that include the streamlining of the company’s operations in terms of cost efficiency, bringing down cost preserves, and bringing up productivity as a whole for the company.
Meanwhile, he also underscored the growth of PLDT’s core infrastructure.
“We continue to reinforce our core infrastructure. We are now at 17.2 million in terms of homes passed, an increase of about 1.7 million homes from the previous period. We continue to expand our international cyber footprint we are now crossing over 1.1 million of domestic and international footprint, “ Panlilio said.
PLDT TOP EXECS. (L-R) Shailesh Baidwan, Manuel V. Pangilinan (chairman), Alfredo S. Panlilio (PLDT and Smart president and CEO), and Danny Yu