Converge ICT Solutions Inc. said Monday net income nearly trebled in the first quarter on higher fixed-broadband subscribers and lower corporate income tax rate.
The company said net profit amounted to P1.54 billion from January to March, up from P574 million in the same period last year.
Consolidated revenues also grew by 83.6 percent to P5.54 billion from P3.02 billion a year earlier. Revenues from residential business more than doubled to P4.79 billion from P2.28 billion.
The company recorded 1.18 million residential subscribers in the first quarter, up 92 percent year-on-year.
It deployed almost 500,000 new fiber-to-the-home ports in the first quarter, almost twice the number of FTTH ports it had in the same quarter last year.
Converge said that as of end-March, its nationwide network reached more than 7.1 million homes on track to reach the company’s target to cover about 55 percent of households in the Philippines by 2025.
The company also continued the rapid expansion of its nationwide fiber network. Almost 9,600 kilometers of fiber optic cable were added in the first quarter, expanding its backbone and distribution network to more than 64,600 kilometers from about 55,000 kilometers laid down at the end of 2020.
It said that its fiber backbone reached 69,000 kilometers in April.
"With our network expansion, we were able to extend our coverage to an additional 36 cities and municipalities during the first quarter of 2021, extending our services this quarter to provinces including Ilocos Sur, Pangasinan, Nueva Vizcaya, Nueva Ecija, Albay and Batangas, among others allowing us to reach a total of 352 cities and municipalities as of March 31, 2021," Converge ICT said.
Converge said its expansion to the Visayas and Mindanao regions were progressing as planned and hitting significant milestones. Its fiber cables reached the shores of the major cities of Cebu and Cagayan de Oro in April.
