PLDT capex up 69% to P8B in H1

MANILA, Philippines - Dominant carrier Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) spent 69 percent more in the first half of the year amid heightened network activities, company data showed.

PLDT’s capital expenditures amounted to P8.1 billion from January to June or P3.3 billion higher compared to the P4.8 billion spent in the same period last year.

PLDT president Napoleon Nazareno said the company was able to expand its 3G/4G/HSPA+ coverage population to 82 percent and increase frequency division/time-division long-term evolution (FD/TD LTE) coverage to around 1,800 base stations in the first half. 

Nazareno added that the PLDT Group has also extended its fiber network to over 88,000 kilometers, fortifying the Visayas-Mindanao fiber optic backbone link with the completion of the Bohol leg of the domestic fiber optic network (DFON).

He said the company continues to reinforce existing network infrastructure to improve resiliency against severe weather conditions through buried fiber optic links, deployment of super-sized base stations, and elevated equipment shelters.

Likewise, he said the company has completed 70 percent of all provinces and activated nationwide domestic roaming for subscribers of Sun Cellular customers into Smart Communications Inc. except in Metro Manila as part of a unification project.

The PLDT chief executive officer said the company is spending as much as P32 billion or 20 percent of projected service revenues for its capital expenditures this year, from P29 billion or 18 percent of total revenues last year.

This year’s budget for capital expenditures, Nazareno said, would cover the widening of its fiber footprint to at least 90,000 kilometers and at the same time increase 3G population coverage to about 92 percent nationwide.

He added that the PLDT Group also intends to double to 50 percent its 4G LTE population coverage from 25 percent last year.

The PLDT Group spent P67.6 billion for a two-year network modernization and transformation program that was completed in 2012. 

The PLDT Group’s total subscriber base stood at 74.7 million as of end-June, with a cellular subscriber base numbering 68.9 million, including Smart with 25.6 million, Talk ‘N Text with 28.1 million, and Sun Cellular with 15.3 million.