Fiber, VoD drive PLDT broadband growth

PLDT is speeding up the deployment of both fiber-to-the-home lines while transforming its existing digital subscriber line into hybrid fiber-powered broadband lines to enable speed upgrades for its DSL customers

PLDT HOME, the consumer group of leading telco and digital services provider PLDT, posted P18 billion in revenues, a robust 14 percent increase in first-half-2018 revenues, on the back of strong customer demand for fiber broadband connectivity and a growing appetite for bundled services like video entertainment.

“By mid-2018, PLDT HOME’s household penetration climbed to an all-time-high of 2.22 million,” said PLDT and Smart SVP and head of Consumer Business Market Development Oscar Enrico Reyes Jr.

“Moreover, the average revenue per subscriber has increased by 4 percent to a new high of P1,389 as more subscribers are signing up for new high-speed fiber plans bundled with video streaming services such as Cignal, iFlix and Netflix. PLDT HOME also continues to promote its Best Buy Bundles that offer PLDT, Smart and Cignal TV services in one bill,” he added.

These improvements were made possible by PLDT’s accelerated deployment of its fiber-powered fixed line broadband network which was recently recognized in the Ookla Speedtest as the Philippines’ fastest internet network. PLDT’s average speed of 17.3mbps is more than 1.5 times faster than that of the second placer and nearly 3 times faster than the fourth placer on the list.

During the first half of 2018, PLDT expanded the coverage of its fiber-powered fixed broadband network to 5.1 million homes nationwide, up from 4 million at end-2017, accomplishing nearly 100 percent of its full-year 2018 target.

PLDT also boosted its capacity by about 86 percent to 1.86 million ports, or almost 85 percent of its full-year target of 2.2 million ports.

PLDT is speeding up the deployment of both fiber-to-the-home lines while transforming its existing digital subscriber line into hybrid fiber-powered broadband lines to enable speed upgrades for its DSL customers.

“There is strong demand for high-speed home fiber. Where the service is available, customer take up is strong. We’ve enhanced this process by focusing our roll out in the areas that we’ve found to have ready customers for fiber broadband,” Reyes explained.

PLDT expanded the coverage of its fiber-powered fixed broadband network to 5.1 million homes nationwide.

He added that increasingly customers are looking for the higher-speed plans such as Plan 1699 and Plan 1899 because these plans can provide high-quality video viewing.