PLDT units cement position as top mobile phone carrier

The Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) wireless group further cemented its position as the country’s leading provider of mobile telephone services after its cellular subscriber base reached 28.3 million as of end-September this year.

PLDT told the Philippine Stock Exchange that wireless subsidiaries Smart Communications and Pilipino Telephone Inc. (Piltel) now have a combined 28.3 million cellular subscribers as of last month.

“Smart is pleased with the sustained strong growth of its subscriber base and will continue to launch programs and offerings to aid it in maintaining that momentum for the balance of the year,” PLDT officials said.

They added that while it is possible to reach 30 million subscribers by the end of the year, they cannot guarantee the attainment of this goal.

PLDT has yet to announce its financial and operational highlights as of the end of the third quarter.

As of the first half of 2007, consolidated wireless service revenues rose to P43 billion, 11 percent higher than the P38.6 billion realized in the same period last year as Smart and Piltel exceeded their performance.

PLDT president Napoleon Nazareno earlier announced that wireless service revenues in the second quarter of 2007 improved six percent quarter-on-quarter to P22.2 billion due partly to election-related spending and continued focus on driving subscriber activations and providing better value packages.

In the first half, cellular data revenues grew 15 percent, voice revenues by seven percent, and wireless broadband revenues by 211 percent (from P300 million to P930 million).

Consolidated wireless EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) improved by 10 percent to 28.2 billion while EBITDA margins were maintained at 66 percent.

Smart reported cellular net additions of 2.9 million for the first six months of 2007, bringing subscriber base to 27 million as of end-June this year. Smart’s subscriber base was at 19.1 million and Talk N’ Text at eight million as of end-June.

Broadband subscribers (DSL, Smart Broadband, and PLDT WeRoam) as of June 30, 2007 reached 422,000 and total revenue contribution from broadband and Internet services surged 40 percent to P3.3 billion for the period.

PLDT earlier said it is on target to double its broadband subscriber base to over 530,000 by the end of this year.