PLDT & Smart SVP and Head of Consumer Business Market Development Oscar Enrico A. Reyes, Jr.
PLDT HOME, the consumer group of leading telco and digital services provider PLDT, posted P18 billion in revenues, a robust 14% increase in first-half-2018 revenues, on the back of strong customer demand for fiber broadband connectivity and a growing appetite for bundled services like video entertainment.
“By mid-2018, PLDT HOME’s household penetration climbed to an all-time-high of 2.22 million, an increase of 9% year-on-year in unique subscribers,” said PLDT & Smart SVP and Head of Consumer Business Market Development Oscar Enrico A. Reyes, Jr.
“Moreover, the average revenue per subscriber has increased by 4% to a new high of P1,389 as more subscribers are signing up for new high-speed fiber plans bundled with video streaming services such as Cignal, iFlix, and Netflix. PLDT HOME also continues to promote its Best Buy Bundles that offer PLDT, Smart, and Cignal TV services in one bill,” he added.
These improvements were made possible by PLDT’s accelerated deployment of its fiber-powered fixed line broadband network which was recently recognized in the Ookla Speedtest as the Philippines’ fastest internet network. PLDT’s average speed of 17.3mbps is more than 1.5x faster than that of the second placer, and nearly 3x faster than the fourth placer on the list.
During the first half of 2018, PLDT expanded the coverage of its fiber-powered fixed broadband network to 5.1 million homes passed nationwide, up from 4 million at end-2017, accomplishing nearly 100% of its full-year 2018 target.
PLDT also boosted its capacity by about 86% to 1.86 million ports, or almost 85% of its full-year target of 2.2 million ports.
PLDT is speeding up the deployment of both fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) lines while transforming its existing DSL lines into hybrid fiber-powered broadband lines to enable speed upgrades for its DSL customers.
“There is strong demand for high-speed home fiber. Where the service is available, customer take up is strong. We’ve enhanced this process by focusing our roll out in the areas that we’ve found to have ready customers for fiber broadband,” Reyes explained.
He added that increasingly customers are looking for the higher-speed plans such as Plan 1699 and Plan 1899 because these plans can provide high-quality video viewing. “People’s growing preference for video entertainment on-demand is boosting the need for high-speed broadband at home,” Reyes said.
“To complement the fiber service deployment, PLDT HOME has also started to offer an affordable prepaid fixed wireless broadband service - the PLDT Home WiFi - that runs on Smart’s LTE network. Easy to use, instantly activated, and can connect up to five devices, the prepaid Home WiFi is perfect for the family,” Reyes said.
Smart’s LTE network was also recognized by Ookla as being the fastest mobile network in the Philippines today.
In the first half of 2018, PLDT added over 29,000 kilometers of fiber cable or 97% of its full-year 2018 target, increasing its fiber footprint to around 204,000 kilometers which further enhanced the reach, capacity, and resiliency of its unparalleled fiber network.
For 2018, the modernization and expansion of PLDT’s fixed and mobile networks are being supported by a massive capital expenditure (capex) program amounting to P58 billion. This distinctive capex program is characterized by its targeted approach, with roll out plans guided by clearly-defined business priorities based on insights drawn from business analytics and on-the-ground information generated by PLDT and Smart sales teams and trade partners, thus, PLDT’s fixed and mobile networks are being built where there are ready markets for their services.
