Speaking at the virtual PLDT 2022 first half earnings briefing on August 4, Pangilinan said the continued elevated levels of PLDT’s CAPEX would help PLDT expand connectivity to more population.
He also assured PLDT can maintain its CAPEX programs with its preparedness to respond to the peso depreciation. He said PLDT remains committed to improving connectivity in the entire country.
Based on the financial data presented by PLDT at the briefing, its CAPEX reached P518billion in the last 10 years. Capex guidance for 2022 is ₱85 billion.
For the first half of 2022, PLDT has disclosed a P94.3 billion all-time high service revenues.
The President during his first SONA called for a universal connectivity particularly in the use of the technology in education.
“We are aligned to the suggestion of President Marcos in his call for broadening our connectivity network in this country. It’s manifested by the continued elevated levels of our Capex, and we are prepared to answer for the peso depreciation to maintain our capex program, so across the board the investors are being made on the fix side of our business and the mobile side of our business,” Pangilinan said.
The PLDT chairman however admitted connectivity in the entire country poses a big challenge for the company in terms of its capability specifically in relation to fiber networking.
“Challenge is, are we capable of covering the entire country? Probably it's difficult if we are talking about fiber networking. The current technology and pricing for that technology is not commercially feasible at this time so we have to look at other solutions, some not so expensive; some expensive, since that is a satellite kind of connectivity, “ Pangilinan said.
He said, the kind of goal the President wants to achieve would require some help from the government like licensing to help telecommunication companies achieve connectivity in far flung areas to help education in most rural areas.
“But we will do our best. I think we are open with regard to the help of the government,” he said.
PLDT and Smart president and CEO Alfredo S. Panlilio for his part said the private sector in a recent meeting with President Marcos has raised the need to have connectivity among the population.
“We were suggesting that as a private sector we could use technology to reach as many Filipinos as we can. We can use schools and barangay centers as community Wifi halls to start with to reach more students as the Chairman said no learners should be left behind. That’s the only way we can expand,” Panlilio said.
He said the initiative for connectivity should be a combination of fixed, wireless, and satellite.
Nonetheless, the initiative should be through public private partnership wherein there has to be some funding from the government to help the private sector in terms of rolling out towers particularly in missionary routes where the private sector finds it difficult to invest because of viability, Panlilio said.
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