PLDT preparing for heightened competition

MANILA, Philippines — Integrated telecommunications company PLDT Inc. is gearing up for heightened competition with the expected entry of more foreign investors in the local telco space with the possible approval of a proposal seeking to amend the country’s Public Service Act.

PLDT chief legal counsel Marilyn Victorio-Aquino said the company is closely monitoring developments in the proposed  amendments to the Public Service Act, wherein foreign ownership restrictions in sectors such as telecommunications would be removed.

“The most relevant to PLDT is the proposed amendment to the Public Service Law. The proposal will create a public services category which will take telco out of the definition of public utilities and the consequent restriction on foreign investment under the Constitution,” Aquino said.

Public utilities under the Constitution should be 60 percent Filipino-owned.

The proposed amendments to the Public Service Act will define public utilities and provide a distinction from public services, as well as limit public utilities to natural monopolies involving distribution and transmission of electricity, water and sewerage.

The amendments hope to attract more foreign investments in the telecommunications sector, among others.

Aquino said the proposed amendments present an opportunity, as well as a challenge to PLDT, as foreign investors could invest more than 40 percent in the company and in other telcos.

“We expect that there will be heightened competition as a result of this,” she said.

Aquino said the telco giant has already been undertaking measures to address the expected heightened competition once the proposed amendments to the country’s Public Service Act are approved.

“We continue to spend capex on our network to preserve the superiority of the network so that we can continue to provide world-class customer experience. That’s the only way you can prepare for this competition,” she said.

PLDT has earmarked P88 billion to P92 billion in capital expenditures for this year alone.

The company’s record capex investments over the last 10 years amounting to P460.8 billion have enabled the company to deliver superior customer experience.

At present, PLDT operates the country’s most extensive fiber infrastructure, spanning more than 478,000 kilometers as of end-March.

The fiber infrastructure also supports Smart Communication Inc.’s mobile network, which serves 96 percent of the population in the country.

In anticipation for a much stiffer battle in the telco space, newly appointed PLDT president and CEO Alfredo Panlilio said the company has been benchmarking itself not against local competition, but with regional telcos.

“We are wary of what competition is doing. We know what they are offering in the market, but at the end of the day, it’s going to be the strength of the service and customer experience that will win in the market. So we just need to do better than the competition,” Panlilio said.