Eastern Communications grows market share to 6 percent

MANILA, Philippines — Eastern Communications is banking on the growing demand for corporate connectivity to further increase its market share, as it plans to maximize new assets to attract customers in underserved areas.

Eastern Communications will spend P1.15 billion for capital expenditures in 2024, as it sets out to expand its portfolio and reach to sustain the growth of its market share.

Eastern Communications grew its market share to 6.1 percent in 2023, from 5.2 percent in 2022, as the company broadened its fiber network to about 9,760 kilometers with a total of 180 nodes in 42 cities nationwide.

For 2024, Easter Communications will center its expansion pipeline in business districts outside of Metro Manila. In particular, the company seeks to onboard new clients from Bacolod, Bohol, Boracay, Cagayan de Oro, Davao, Dumaguete and Iloilo.

Further, Eastern Communications will promote its products and services in areas covered by the Philippine Domestic Submarine Cable Network (PDSCN). The express route of the PDSCN was activated earlier in the year, while the entire length of the infrastructure will be completed later in 2024.

PDSCN, developed by Eastern Communications, Globe Telecom Inc. and InfiniVAN Inc., covers a distance of more than 2,500 kilometers, the longest of its kind in the Philippines.

Eastern Communications, Globe and InfiniVAN invested $150 million for the project, aiming to use the PDSCN to reach underserved areas.

Financially, Eastern Communications expanded its revenue by 11 percent to P4.8 billion in 2023, from P4.34 billion in 2022, even as the market for business-to-business connectivity declined by eight percent.

Eastern Communications vice president and head of sales Michael Castañeda said the goal of the company is to trace 62 percent of its revenue from information and communications technology (ICT). Six years ago in 2018, ICT accounted for just six percent of revenue of the telco.

Castañeda believes the market for business-to-business connectivity will remain growing as long as Filipinos adopt digital platforms. As such, Eastern Communications wants to penetrate at least 30 digital cities identified by the Department of Information and Communications Technology.

Eastern Communications provides businesses with a variety of ICT products, from data services to digital security.

Eastern Communications parent Vega Telecom Inc. is owned 50 percent each by PLDT Inc. and Globe.