PLDT continues to lead in home broadband business

MANILA, Philippines - PLDT Inc. continued to lead in the home broadband business as it posted double growth in revenue and subscriber count in the first semester amid the rollout of fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) lines to more areas.

In a statement, PLDT said it accounted for around 66 percent of new residences connected with high-speed internet.

It said it sustained leadership in the home broadband business as revenue rose 12 percent to P15.8 billion in the first six months from a year ago.

PLDT’s subscriber base also climbed 10 percent to 3.88 million as of end-June versus the same period last year.

“Along with our enterprise business unit, PLDT Home has continued to set the pace for service revenues, growing for at least six consecutive quarters already,” Manuel V. Pangilinan, PLDT president, chairman and chief executive officer said.

“This springs from their success in executing their digital shift much earlier,” he added.

PLDT Home started the shift to data and digital service in the early 2000s through the introduction of the DSL home broadband service.

In 2013, PLDT boosted its data service business through the launch of the FTTH service.

PLDT is currently expanding the coverage of FTTH service in the country through its PLDT Fibr Smart Cities program.

PLDT Fibr enables subscribers to experience equal upload and download speeds of up to 1 Gbps, and gain access to content from CignalTV, iflix, Netflix, Fox+, and iWant TV, among others.

Given the FTTH expansion program, PLDT’s fiber network’s coverage rose to 3.1 million homes as of end-June from 2.8 million as of end-2016.

PLDT targets to further widen the reach of its FTTH service to cover four million homes by the end of the year.