PLDT, Globe prepare bigger war chest for 2021

MANILA, Philippines — Telecommunication giants PLDT Inc. and Globe Telecom Inc. are readying bigger war chests for next year for continued network expansion amid increasing connectivity demand and expected competition from a new major player.

PLDT intends to spend “much more” than P70 billion in capital expenditures in 2021, while Globe is earmarking P70 billion.

“We will continue to invest next year, even much more that what we are spending this year. We will not stop investing,” PLDT chief revenue officer and Smart Communications Inc. president and CEO Al Panlilio said.

“We just finished our budget session for next year, and we will continue to invest for sure in fiber and also in our wireless coverage,” he said.

PLDT was earlier forced to downsize this year’s capex to about P63 billion as a result of the slowdown in network rollout due to the quarantine controls imposed in the second quarter, but has leveled up its target capex back up to about P70 billion with the network rollout regaining momentum following the easing of lockdown restrictions.

PLDT rival Globe is also preparing for bigger capital spending by next year, after the company similarly lowered its capex this year to P50.3 billion from P63 billion due to the pandemic.

“For 2021, we have big ambitions. We are hoping to spend over what we did in 2020. With the improved permitting, we hope to spend about P70 billion,” Globe president and CEO Ernest Cu said in the same virtual briefing.

Globe’s planned capex for next year will be used to put up one million fiber to the home lines and over 2,000 new cell sites.

It will also be spent on the roll out of 5G to more cities and municipalities, as well as improve voice services with VoLTE and VoWiFi for clearer voice calls and faster call setup.

Fitch Ratings said last month that regulatory pressure and looming competition from a new entrant are expected to drive capital expenditures of the country’s two telco incumbents by 20 percent to 25 percent in 2021.

The higher spending, it said, will be driven by the accelerated network rollout in mobile and fiber broadband in the coming quarters, ahead of new major player Dito Telecommunity’s entry in March 2021.