PLDT remains market leader in home broadband in 2017

MANILA, Philippines — PLDT Inc. remained the leader in the home broadband market at the end of 2017, posting double-digit growth in subscribers.

In a statement, the telco said total PLDT Home subscribers which includes Fibr, DSL and voice customers, rose over 12 percent year-on-year to reach 4.1 million as of end-2017.

The telco’s fiber facilities passed four million homes at the end of last year, growing around 1.2 million from the previous year.

“The market response to PLDT’s aggressive deployment of fiber lines was quick and strong, adding nearly half a million new subscribers. The dramatic improvement in PLDT’s ability to deliver faster broadband speeds with the roll out of fiber and hybrid fiber, coupled with continuous innovations in digital solutions, access to content, and bundled offers, have boosted subscriptions,” Oscar Reyes Jr.,  PLDT senior vice president and head of consumer business market development, said.

He said PLDT’s Smart City and Smart Province programs, which involve converting areas by providing fiber coverage, also enabled more Filipinos to enjoy the benefits of the firm’s products and services.

PLDT’s Smart City and Smart Province programs were implemented in cooperation with local government units.

In March last year, PLDT set up the first Smart City in Toledo in Cebu, followed by General Santos, Naga, South Metro Manila, East Metro Manila, and central business districts like Rockwell Makati and Bonifacio Global City.

Cavite, meanwhile, became the first Smart Province in September last year.

While the Smart Cities are the more visible areas of PLDT’s fiber expansion, the telco also brought fiber-to-the-home and hybrid fiber connections to other parts of the country.

Through hybrid fiber technology, PLDT is able to provide fiber-fast speeds to about 1.2 million PLDT residential customers on copper-powered broadband using VVDSL and G. fast.

Hybrid technologies VVDSL and G.fast are used extensively in Germany and South Korea to deliver speeds of up to 500 to 600 Mbps over copper lines.

PLDT chairman and chief executive officer Manuel V. Pangilinan has said the company intends to double its fiber and hybrid fiber broadband capacity to over 2.2 million ports this year.

“About 650,000 of the additional ports will be for fiber, while another 550,000 will be for hybrid fiber broadband. This effort will not only expand the reach of PLDT’s fiber network, but it will also upgrade its copper-based broadband service to fiber speeds,” he said.

By 2019, virtually all of PLDT’s 1.2 million copper-based DSL subscribers would have fiber-fast internet as the company continues to expand fixed broadband coverage to 5.1 million homes passed.