PLDT broadband subscriber base hits 880,000 as of September

Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) remains the country’s leading broadband service provider as its total broadband subscriber base reached 880,000 as of end-September this year.

During the third quarter of this year, the PLDT group added around 130,000 broadband subscribers.

The company earlier reported that total broadband subscribers as of June 30 exceeded 750,000 with total revenue contribution from broadband and Internet services at P4.9 billion, 48 percent higher than in the same period last year.

Consolidated capital expenditures for PLDT during the first half of 2008 was at P8.7 billion, with spending expected to accelerate in the second half, PLDT president and chief executive officer Napoleon Nazareno said.

He also revealed that the company intends to continue building out capacity and coverage of its wireless and broadband networks aggressively.

Nazareno added that the programmed spending budget for the group for 2008 had been raised to approximately P28.5 billion from an earlier figure of P25.4 billion.

He explained that the increase is attributable primarily to the wireless business where higher than expected wireless and broadband subscriber growth and accelerated investments in wireless broadband capacity will require a higher level of capex during the year.

The STAR also learned that PLDT Landline Plus (PLP), a fixed-wireless telephone service that uses a combined fixed and wireless platform in the delivery of fixed line voice and data services, registered a huge jump in its subscriber base to 200,000 as of end-September this year.

PLP is available in areas with limited or non-existent PLDT fixed facilities. A postpaid version has been in the market since March 2007 and a prepaid offering was introduced in March this year.

Company officials noted that demand for the service has been strong given the service’s value proposition. Subscribers to this service, net of churn, numbered 116,000 in end-June.

There were no available figures yet as far as the subscriber base for SmartBro, the wireless broadband service of PLDT’s main mobile phone unit Smart Communications.

PLDT earlier reported that wireless broadband subscriber base grew 35 percent for the first half of 2008 to reach 408,000 at end-June 2008, adding about 60,000 new subscribers for the second quarter alone.

Wireless broadband revenues grew 109 percent to about P1.9 billion in the first half of 2008, a significant improvement over the P930 million in the same period in 2007.

SmartBro’s prepaid Plug-It service, which was introduced in late March 2008, already has over 32,000 subscribers as of end-June, as it made the Internet available to a broader segment of the population with affordable sachet pricing, nationwide coverage and easy loading. Plug-It offers instant Internet access through a portable wireless modem and is available in all areas where Smart’s network coverage is present.

“We are excited by the early success of Plug-It’s prepaid version as it demonstrates that there is a strong demand for Internet access beyond the traditional postpaid market,” Smart chief wireless adviser Orlando Vea earlier noted.

Retail DSL continued to grow for PLDT as broadband subscribers grew by over 70,000 to 335,000 at the end of the first half 2008 from 264,000 at the end of 2007. PLDT DSL generated P2.5 billion in revenues for the first six months of 2008, up 44 percent from P1.8 billion in the same period in 2007, accounting for 51 percent of the PLDT Group’s broadband and Internet revenues for the period.

PLDT chairman Manuel Pangilinan emphasized that they have raised their capital expenditure forecast by P3.1 billion, in order to accelerate investments in wireless broadband and in their broader cellular infrastructure. – Mary Ann Reyes