Filipino telco PLDT Inc. has revealed that consolidated service revenues grew by 7% to PHP49.13 billion (USD881.2 million) in the three months ended 30 June 2022, up from PHP45.92 billion in 2Q21, while 1H22 services revenue reached an ‘all-time high’ of PHP97.10 billion, driven by data and broadband. Further, consolidated EBITDA also hit a record high in 1H22, climbing 8.0% on an annualised basis to PHP50.45 billion with an EBITDA margin of 52% (up 1pp year-on-year). Net income attributable to shareholders reached PHP7.77 billion in 2Q22, compared to PHP7.19 billion in the same period of 2021, and PHP16.74 billion for the January-June period (up 30% y-o-y).
PLDT spent PHP46.0 billion in 1H22 for capital expenditure projects, the bulk of which was for network upgrades which resulted in a total of 16.2 million homes passed by its fibre broadband network at end-June, up from a figure of 13.9 million twelve months before. The total broadband subscription base reached 4.082 million at end-June 2022, including 2.821 million fibre connections.
Meanwhile, it said it had added 1,200 new 4G BTS in H1 2022, lifting the total to 39,800, on top of deploying 200 3G BTS to take the total to 17,100, and rolling out a total of 7,300 5G BTS – up from 4,800 a year earlier. At 30 June 2022 the carrier said its combined 3G/4G/5G coverage served 97% of the population, with a total of 69.398 million mobile subscriptions at that date, down 3% y-o-y, including some 2.114 million ‘unique devices’ using its 5G network (2Q21: 520,000).