MANILA, Philippines - Gokongwei-owned Digital Telecommunications Phils. Inc. (Digitel) posted a P145.4 million net income in the first six months of the year, a complete turnaround from the P638 million loss suffered in the same period last year, as the wireless communication and wireline data businesses spearheaded the company’s performance.
The wireless communication business and wireline data communication services generated respective net income of P506.38 million and P81.7 million during the January to June 2010 period, more than enough to offset the P442.7 million net loss suffered by wireline voice communication services.
For the second quarter of 2010, however, Digitel posted a P188.6 million loss compared with a P351.4 million loss in the same period last year.
During the first half of last year, the wireless communication services group posted a net income of P196.7 million while the wireline voice communication group suffered a loss of P885.4 million. The wireline data group generated a P50.6 million profit last year.
Service and non-service revenues during the January to June 2010 period reached P7.97 billion, up 19 percent from last year’s P6.69 billion, driven mainly by the 30.6 percent growth in the wireless segment.
Wireless communication services contributed P6.24 billion; wireline voice, P1.49 billion; and wireline data, P238.5 million.
The wireless communication services under the Sun Cellular brand posted a remarkable 30.6 percent growth in operating revenues during the six-month period while net service revenues, of which 68.2 percent accounts for unlimited services, improved substantially by 29.8 percent against reported revenues of the same period last year.
Company officials said this was mainly attributable to the continued success of the unlimited service portfolio (e.g. 24/7 Call & Text Unlimited and Text Unlimited) and increase in subscriber count from the Group Plans and Plan 350 products.
They noted that in addition, upgrading the services by continuously expanding network coverage through aggressive network rollouts directly contributed to the increase of subscriber base.
They added that the introduction of new products were also a major factor in increasing net service revenue, namely: Sun International Services, Easy Line, Sun Broadband Wireless (SBW), among others.
Non-service revenues from the wireless communications segment almost doubled as a result of higher sales of SIM packs, SBW prepaid kits and electronic load. Competitive SIM pack prices such as the Sun Super Budget SIM and new products launched such as prepaid Sun Broadband Wireless (SBW) and Sun Call and Text International SIM at very affordable prices, likewise, aggressively contributed to enlarge market share, the company reported.