Cellphones hit landline subscriptions

CEBU, Philippines - The advent of mobile phones coupled with attractive promotions that come with it have affected the landline subscription rate in Cebu, which according to the latest data, only 50 percent of the total available lines in the province are being subscribed.

National Telecommunications Commission (NTC-7) officer-in-charge Jesus Laureno said in an interview yesterday that there are close to 500 thousand available landlines provided for by telecom giants Globe Telecom and Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT).

Globe has about 350 thousand available landlines, while PLDT has a little over 100 thousand. These available lines are only 50 percent subscribed.

The growth of landline subscription take up has not improved significantly in the province, since the cellular phone trend had started, Laureno said.

However, because of the broadband service that are packaged with landline service and broadband access, the take up of landline telephone subscription has slowly improved.

He said PLDT still has to roll out more available landline service in the entire province, as the company was already given authority to install, operate and maintain telecom facilities in different parts of the Cebu province.

Aside from PLDT and Globe, there are also small telephone providers in municipalities like Southern Telecom (SoTelCo) for Bantayan and Bantayan, Telecom Management Services Inc. (TMSI) for Toledo and Balamban.

Meanwhile, PLDT earlier announced that it is spending a total of P27 billion in expansion investments, including its plan to roll out “fiber-to-home” technology and its ultimate goal in providing “broadband-for-all.”         

The company incurred P25.2 billion in capital expenditure in 2008. Last year, despite the volatile economic conditions, PLDT increased its capex allocation by P3 billion more.

“The 2008 capex level reflects PLDTs continued investment in the business, an outlook sustained in our forecasted capex of P27 billion for 2009. We are looking beyond the near-term uncertainty and positioning for the long-term when global situation stabilizes,” said PLDT president and chief executive officer (CEO) Napoleon L. Nazareno

The introduction of “fiber-to-home” technology will provide Filipinos with much reliable and faster internet connection. Although this may cost a little higher compared to ordinary connection, it is considered as the “ultimate” in fixed line infrastructure.

PLDT, the largest telecommunication provider in the Philippines, reported that Internet traffic has grown at least 80 percent year on year since 2006.

Broadband subscriber based continued to grow robustly, and approached one million by year-end.         

Total broadband and Internet service revenues for the company grew 45 percent to P11 billion in 2008, which now represents eight percent of consolidated service revenues from six percent in 2007. — Ehda M. Dagooc