PLDT's fixed line service revenues up 5% in Jan-Sept

Telecommunications giant Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co.‘s (PLDT) service revenues from its fixed line business have increased by around five percent during the first nine months of 2008 as against the same period last year.

PLDT sources said fixed line revenues would have grown by eight or nine percent during the period if not for the decline in international long distance (ILD) revenues.

Company officials said the continued growth in fixed line revenues is phenomenal considering that telecommunications companies worldwide have been reporting declining revenues from their landline business.

Fixed line service revenues increased four percent to P24.6 billion in the first six months of 2008, from P23.7 billion last year as improvements in data revenues, both from corporate data and residential DSL services, were augmented by stable revenues in local exchange and national long distance.

ILD revenues during the January to June period continued to decline as dollar-linked revenues were adversely impacted by a 12-percent appreciation of the peso-dollar exchange rate in 2008 as well as declines in termination rates and call volumes.

Company officials noted that fixed line revenues would have improved another two percent during the first six months if foreign exchange rates had remained stable.

“While the fixed line business still faces many challenges, we are confident that we will surmount these in the course of our transformation efforts. The improvement of customer service remains our top priority and in following through on that goal, we have been investing more on our outside plant facilities, our international cable capacity, an additional landing station and our digital fiber optic network,” PLDT president Napoleon Nazareno earlier said.

Officials have also said that the company continues to invest in expanding the coverage of PLDT Landline Plus (PLP), a fixed-wireless telephone service that uses a combined fixed/wireless platform in the delivery of fixed line voice and data services and is available in areas with limited or non-existent PLDT fixed facilities. To date, PLP subscribers have exceeded 200,000, it was learned.

Nazareno said earlier that PLDT’s corporate business group has been aggressive in offering various packages providing connectivity, business solutions and bundled products to corporate clients. “This recognizes that the corporate market has needs which cannot be fully served by wireless applications.,” he said.

He added that their corporate segmentation strategy has identified various niche markets that PLDT will be focusing on: the banking and financial sector, the electronics and semi-conductor industry, and the outsourcing/BPO industry.

Another growing and underserved segment of the market is composed of small-and-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), estimated to be around 300,000 in number, Nazareno said.

PLDT’s total broadband subscriber base exceeded 750,000 as of end-June with total revenue contribution from broadband and internet services at P4.9 billion, 48 percent higher than last year’s. Retail DSL continued to grow as broadband subscribers grew by over 70,000 to 335,000 at the end of the first half 2008 from 264,000 at the end of 2007.

Company officials are projecting that the group’s broadband subscriber base would exceed one million by yearend.

Fixed line earnings before interests, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) in the first half of 2008 improved to P13.6 billion, in line with increased revenues while EBITDA margin declined slightly to 55 percent.