MANILA, Philippines — Philippine Telegraph and Telephone Corp. (PT&T) is optimistic about sustaining its momentum this year after trimming its losses by 40 percent last year on the back of new IT services revenue stream and continuously growing fixed broadband business.
PT&T cut its net loss to P31.3 million last year from 52.4 million in 2019 as revenues rose eight percent year-on-year to P408.34 million.
While stringent lockdowns impacted most small and medium enterprises, PT&T said there was still a demand for increased connectivity to support work-from-home and online learning arrangements, pushing revenues from its fixed broadband services to increase by eight percent to P384 million.
The company’s IT/digital services business added P24.34 million in revenues, driven by several contracts closed in IT infrastructure and business application.
PT&T forayed into the IT services space in 2019, offering accessible enterprise grade solutions to complement its connectivity portfolio.
PT&T said IT services are expected to provide new opportunities for the company in the coming years.
“Our company’s 2020 performance was encouraging and provides a baseline for our plans moving forward with consumer activity bouncing back as the country rolls out the vaccination program. In 2021, we have earmarked large capital expenditure projects to provide our customers with an improved network and quality of service,” PT&T president and chief executive James Velasquez said.
“We emerged from 2020 having undergone the rigorous demands of responding to the pandemic, and we enter 2021 with a golden opportunity to be better equipped as a digital services provider while building a roadmap for recovery and resilience around the pillars of nation-building and customer-centricity,” he said.
PT&T is aiming to expand coverage and upgrade its network infrastructure to help cope with the growing demand and ensure that network congestion will be minimized.
The company said it is in the process of completing its plan to expand its existing telecommunications network that will initially focus on key cities in NCR, CALABARZON and parts of northern Luzon.
Once fully implemented, PT&T’s expanded network will be capable of servicing at least 40 percent of the country’s population.
PT&T also plans to build its nationwide backbone to provide wholesale and retail service, including the capability to offer mobile services in the future.
It said the project would involve the deployment of in-land (terrestrial) and off-shore (submarine) networks connecting all major islands in the country.
The company said it is likewise exploring latest concepts in implementing “virtualization” of network components into data centers to reduce the number of network elements deployed throughout the country.
PT&T has also entered into a service agreement with entities designated to implement the government’s public WiFi services project in several provinces.
It said the agreements would enable the company to establish 9,000 points of presence throughout the country and the commercial WiFi services would then be offered as an add-on to its product portfolio to serve residential and enterprise clients.
Currently, PT&T has a network reach of 18,100 fiber kilometers in high-growth areas.
The publicly-listed company holds a 25-year franchise which allows it to establish, maintain, and operate both wired and wireless telecommunications systems for domestic and international communication in the country.