Pangilinan-led Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) has reported consolidated net income of PHP19.39 billion (USD446.4 million) for the six months ending 30 June 2013, up 5% or nearly PHP1 billion, from the PHP18.44 billion recorded in the first half of 2012. PLDT said the group’s results were buoyed by higher revenues from its mobile phone and broadband businesses, noting that consolidated service revenues for the group rose 2% to PHP81.1 billion year-on-year, also helped by increases from the data and internet business. Revenue derived from wireless services climbed by a similar 2% to PHP57.7 billion, including PHP2.1 billion for mobile internet turnover (+49% y-o-y), and broadband and internet sales were up 14% at PHP12.7 billion, with wireless broadband revenues increasing by 11% annually to PHP4.7 billion. PLDT DSL, meanwhile, generated PHP6.0 billion in revenues in the first half, up 7% y-o-y.
Operationally speaking, the PLDT Group had a total of 73.4 million cellular subscribers to its Smart, Talk ’N Text and Sun Cellular brands, at 30 June 2013, while the combined broadband user base was 3.2 million – of which 920,000 were DSL subscriptions (up 60,000 since the start of the year). Additionally, PLDT’s total fibre-optic footprint stood at more than 71,000km at the same date, including 7,200km of international submarine fibre, and over 4,000km of domestic fibre.