PLDT Inc. said Thursday net income climbed 10 percent in the first half of 2023 from a year ago on the back of gains from tower sales and higher revenues from home broadband and enterprise businesses.
The company said net income amounted to P18.45 billion from January to June, up from P16.78 billion it earned in the same period last year.
PLDT said core income, which excludes the impact of asset sales and Voyager Innovations, reached P17.6 billion, up 3 percent from P17.11 billion in the same period last year. PLDT’s share in losses from Voyager was lower at P1.2 billion, compared to P1.6 billion in the previous year.
PLDT expects core income to reach P33.5 billion to P34 billion this year.
PLDT chairman Manuel Pangilinan said innovation and continuous improvements are key to staying on top in an industry that is extremely challenged growth-wise.
“The maxim ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ may seem like sound advice, but following it blindly is likely to have the opposite desired effect. In his book ‘Legacy’ James Kerr writes that it is precisely when we are on top of our game that we need to change—be it exiting partnerships, letting people go, changing tactics or recalibrating strategies,” Panglinan said.
“The key is in timing these leaps. I believe we are on the cusp of such a leap. A mindset of continuous improvement is one thing we at PLDT need to not only espouse but practice in everything we do. This will be our path to continued and greater success,” he said.
Pangilinan said the prospects for growth of PLDT’s business had been a critical issue in recent years.
“The player with the Big Idea will likely prevail. Which brings to mind what Wayne Gretzky once said: ‘A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be’,” he said.
PLDT’s consolidated service revenues grew 1 percent to P47.4 billion. Data and broadband, which grew by 4 percent to P77.5 billion, contributed 82 percent of consolidated service revenues.
Home’s fiber-only service revenues increased 11 percent to P25.7 billion. Fiber-only revenues accounted for 85 percent of total Home revenues of P30.1 billion, which were 3 percent higher than last year’s.
PLDT’s fiber subscribers reached 3.1 million as of end-June, with 123,000 fiber net additions in the first half.
The B2B arm of the PLDT Group increased revenues by 2 percent to P23.2 billion in the first half, driven by the 13-percent growth in ICT business, consisting of data center and Cloud business.
PLDT spent P40.8 billion in the first half out of its total 2023 capital expenditures of P80 billion to P85 billion.
PLDT Group further expanded its total fiber footprint to over 1.1 million kilometers, consisting of over 231,000 kilometers of international fiber and over 885,000 kilometers of domestic fiber as of end-June 2023.
Homes passed reached 17.2 million homes in 43 percent of the country’ barangays.
PLDT’s fiber infrastructure supports Smart’s 73,800 base stations, including around 4,700 5G base stations and about 38,800 4G/LTE base stations deployed nationwide.
Smart’s network covers around 97 percent of the population with 3G, 4G/LTE and 5G.
