The Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) continued to dominate the fixed-broadband market, cornering nearly three quarters of the market.
The digital-services group of the Philippines’s largest telecommunications company maintained its leadership in the fixed-broadband market, with a 70-percent market share as of end-September.
The said print is more than triple of that of its nearest competitor.
Subscriber base grew by a robust 18 percent in the third quarter year-on-year, bringing its total broadband-subscriber base to nearly 1 million.
“The PLDT Group’s fixed-broadband businesses generated P10.2 billion in revenues for the first three quarters of the year, up by 12 percent from P9.1 billion in the same period in 2013,” PLDT President and CEO Napoleon L. Nazareno said.
“We are glad to know that majority of the broadband market prefers our products and services, which is primarily due to the PLDT Group’s integrated approach of providing a range of high-quality voice, data and multimedia services to our customers,” he added.
For his part, PLDT Executive Vice President Ariel P. Fermin said his group, PLDT HOME, expects sustained growth in broadband with new revenue streams through various services offered in PLDT HOME Telpad and TVolution.
“The increased multimedia usage in Filipino homes is evident as our Cignal over Fibr subscribers expanded fivefold this year,” he said.
In September this year PLDT also grew its Time-Division Duplex-Long Term Evolution (TD-LTE) network to over 400 cell sites to fortify its leadership in providing high-speed Internet services to more Filipinos nationwide.
“The continuous expansion of our TD-LTE network will further strengthen connections at home, especially those who live in remote towns and provinces. TD-LTE will provide them access to the Internet, and allow them to experience the benefits of broadband technology,” Fermin said.
PLDT HOME Ultera, one of PLDT’s latest services launched earlier this year, gives the country’s Internet service a fresh boost by enabling more Filipino homes to gain ready access to multimedia services, like social media, movies, games and music through fourth-generation wireless-broadband platform.
“We are bringing all these digital services within reach of more Filipino homes across the country with our various plan options,” Fermin added.
The Pangilinan-led firm reported a core net profit of P28.6 billion, 1 percent lower than the P28.8 billion recorded in the same period in 2013 due mainly to the rise in cash operating expenses, particularly rent and maintenance costs, an increase in product subsidies and a higher
provision for income tax.
In the same comparative periods, net income declined by 3 percent to P28 billion from P29 billion due to the dip in core net income, and the absence of the contribution from discontinued operations recorded in the said period.
Shares of PLDT closed at P2,996 apiece on Friday.