PLDT Home, lead provider of fiber-to-the-home services in the Philippines, projects sustaining its growth this year as it re-accelerates its fiber expansion and introduce new and innovative services.
“We are all excited at PLDT Home, confident we could do better this year, especially as we usher the era of hyper-fast gigabit internet connectivity, introduce innovative products and services as well as vastly improve customers’ experience by fortifying the fiber network and hastening the resolution of customers complaints,” Jeremiah dela Cruz, PLDT senior vice president and head of Consumer Business Home, said.
“We will also leverage on the strength of PLDT’s fixed and wireless networks to deliver seamless connectivity, by introducing an industry-first ‘Always On’ service for customers to enjoy uninterrupted access for work, education, and entertainment even in cases of outages,” dela Cruz added.
PLDT Home led the fiber industry with 9 percent revenue growth last year to P53 billion. The fiber business accounted for 88 percent of total Home revenue of P60.4 billion. Fiber-only earnings accounted for 81 percent of total revenue in 2022.
Fiber subscribers at end-2023 total 3.2 million with the net addition of 234,000 subscribers. FTTH average revenue per unit stood at P1,493 in 2023, up slightly even as Home expanded its network to underserved and unserved markets.
The planned P75 billion to P78 billion capital expenditure of the PLDT Group this year will remain focused on projects boosting home broadband ports and investing in submarine cable upgrades to drive revenue and further grow network traffic. Data traffic averaged 53,545 terabits per quarter in 2023, nearly double the quarterly average of 27,445 TB in 2022.
The group is also looking to re-accelerate FTTH footprint expansion, with greenfield barangays as priority sites. It is deploying XGS-PON, an updated standard for Passive Optical Network making possible for Home to offer gigabit fiber plans—a service package that allows connectivity of up to 10 gigabits per second.
Last year, the PLDT Group expanded its fiber footprint to over 1.1 million cable kilometers, passing more than 17.5 million homes of an estimated 25 million Filipino households. It spans over 900,000 cable kilometers of domestic fiber and more than 200,000 cable kilometers of international fiber.
The network already covers 18,600 barangays or 44 percent of total 42,046 barangays as at end-2023.
In February, Home launched Gigabit Fiber plans that offer subscribers connectivity of up to 10 Gbps, an ultrafast access to the internet available only to select first-world countries that enables simultaneous high bandwidth online activities for everyone at home without sacrificing quality.
