Sky Cable goes broadband, links to Converge fiber lines

MANILA, Philippines — Pay TV provider Sky Cable Corp. has taken a significant leap to improve its connectivity services and widen its subscriber base as it hooked up to the cable network of one of the largest broadband operators in the Philippines.

Sky Cable yesterday confirmed it has signed a commercial arrangement with Converge ICT Solutions Inc. to scale up its network capabilities and upgrade customer experience.

With this, Sky Cable will hook up to one of the widest fiber networks in the Philippines, giving it a better chance at turning around its financial decline.

Similarly, Converge president and co-founder Maria Grace Uy said the tie-up benefits Converge, too, as it will increase cost efficiency by raising port utilization. Converge views the partnership as an avenue to book additional income by monetizing excess capacity.

To date, Converge manages a fiber network with more than eight million ports, spanning around 700,000 kilometers. However, Converge serves a customer base of about 2.3 million, leaving it with an inactive network of close to six million lines.

“This will be a revenue boost for us in Converge consistent with similar arrangements with other players, as we are able to continue to monetize further our excess network capacity,” Uy said.

As for Sky Cable, the company is embarking on a transformation program that requires it to rework its business efficiency and financial blueprint.

Sky Cable president and chief operations officer Claudia Suarez believes the company has taken the first step toward achieving its transformation plan when it teamed up with Converge.

As initially reported by The STAR, the long-term plan for this partnership is for Sky Cable to turn around its finances and settle all of its debts. As of 2023, Sky Cable’s net loss has reached P653 million, and ABS-CBN Corp., its parent unit, is struggling to keep it afloat.

Worse, Sky Cable owes P4.53 billion to lenders, and it is scheduled to repay several obligations within the year. Sky Cable squandered the right to offer direct-to-home services when ABS-CBN failed to obtain a new franchise in 2020, which led to its exit on free TV.

Prior to this, telco leader PLDT Inc. was supposed to buy out Sky Cable for P6.75 billion, but the transaction was abandoned in February for undisclosed reasons.

The good news for Sky Cable is that it gets to retain its pay TV in the partnership with Converge, as opposed to the scrapped deal with PLDT where it would have folded its core service.