The country’s largest integrated telco PLDT reported that its Home business segment boosted its total revenues to P30.3 billion in the first nine months of 2020, a 10% increase from the same period last year, on the back of a sustained demand for its services and PLDT’s improved installation capability.
“We have seen our service revenues grow consistently quarter-on-quarter since 2018. For the third quarter of 2020 alone, Home produced P10.7 billion, a 16% gain in revenues. If not for the negative impact of the lockdown in the second quarter of this year, we would have had 11 quarters of consecutive growth – no small feat and a testament to the hard work and dedication of the whole group,” said PLDT chief revenue officer and Smart president and CEO Alfredo S. Panlilio.
As of end-September 2020, PLDT’s rollout of its Home broadband services reached 46% of the total cities and municipalities nationwide, serving the data connectivity needs of Filipinos, especially during these pandemic times when more people are working and studying from home.
PLDT broadband installations grew to approximately 72,000 new connects per month in the third quarter of 2020, from an average of 40,000 each month in 2019.
“As demand continues to outpace capacity, with service applications having doubled, we are meeting this surge in demand by ramping up installation capability,” said PLDT senior vice president and head of Home business Menardo G. Jimenez.
He added that, “installations are expected to spike to at least 100,000 homes per month, moving forward.
In areas where its fiber service is not yet available, PLDT continues to deploy its wireless Home WiFi service powered by its mobile subsidiary Smart’s 4G/LTE network.
“With this broadband network, PLDT is ramping up its capabilities to be able to serve more Filipinos nationwide by rolling out more fiber and more ports in different parts of the Philippines than it has ever done before because we want to connect as many Filipino families as we possibly can to our fiber network which is, by far, the most extensive and advanced digital transport network in the country,” Panlilio said.
PLDT Home had initiated the #Safe@Home program during the stricter community quarantine period until June 2020 to provide the strongest connections at home and ensure continued services for customers. The program included giving Home Fibr customers a free speed boost to at least 25 Mbps and double-the-data packages for fixed wireless subscribers.
From June 2020 onwards, it launched the #RediscoverHome campaign to enable families to realize that everything that matters can be found in their homes. #RediscoverHome features Fibr Plus plans that offer unlimited Fibr, Whole Home WiFi coverage, and Cignal HDTV. PLDT is enabling more Filipino families to Work@Home and Study@Home.
When COVID-19 community quarantines began in March, PLDT’s expansion efforts and investments helped the Group cope with the sustained growth in data traffic.
Over the past five years, PLDT’s capital expenditures total nearly P260 billion. It plans to extend its already far-reaching fiber optic cable network from its current 395,000- kilometer footprint by another 81,000 kilometers. With 8.3 million homes passed, PLDT is looking at a significant potential market in the near-term. It also has ongoing plans of adding 500,000 fiber ports to serve more homes in the country.
