Filipino telecoms group PLDT Inc. has announced that its consolidated service revenues for the nine months ended 30 September 2021 increased by 7% year-on-year to PHP135.9 billion (USD2.7 billion), aided by ‘all-time highs’ in terms of service revenues and EBITDA in 3Q21 of PHP46.0 billion and PHP24.5 billion, respectively. The company also revealed that core income jumped 10% to PHP23.1 billion in the January-September period, partly due to lower tax rates, adding that it is on course to reach its full-year target of PHP30 billion. Meanwhile, for the first nine months, total CAPEX of PLDT and mobile arm Smart Communications reached PHP63.3 billion, putting the group ‘on track’ to meet the full-year guidance of PHP88 billion.
In the disclosure to the stock exchange, PLDT highlighted that its fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) business posted ‘record-breaking’ growth for the third quarter with its service revenue hitting PHP9 billion, up 83% on an annualised basis, as total PLDT Home revenue grew 25% y-o-y to PHP35.5 billion in 9M21. Total fibre-optic capacity of PLDT Home stood at 5.29 million ports by end-September with the operator noting that its broadband arm added a net 324,000 fibre broadband subscriptions in Q3 to increase the total to 2.77 million. Having already gained 802,000 new fibre subscriptions in the first nine months, PLDT Home is on track to exceed one million net new fibre subscriptions this year.
Turning to mobile activities, PLDT noted that Wireless division revenues grew 3%, or PHP2.0 billion, to PHP65.1 billion in the first nine months of 2021, ‘despite challenging market conditions due to limited mobility, economic difficulties and competition’. Data/internet contributed 80% of the segment’s revenues with its mobile data users hitting 40 million. PLDT said Smart 5G’s revenue contribution is poised to expand further with its aggressive network rollout – the group reported 6,400 5G sites on air as at 30 September – adding that mobile data revenue topped PHP52.6 billion in 9M21, compared to PHP48.1 billion in the same period of 2020, as data traffic rose by 16% y-o-y.