PLDT to spend P1.5B to rollout more cell sites
MANILA – The Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) said it plans to spend P1.5 billion to roll out more additional cell sites in remote areas nationwide.
Napoleon Nazareno, PLDT president and chief executive told reporters that his company is in the course of adding additional 500 mobile phone base stations “to complete the gap in remote areas,” particularly in Mindanao.
Nazareno said the P1.5 billion is part of the company’s capital expenditure this year amounting to P28.6 billion.
This year’s capital spending will fund network expansion to support take-up of broadband and higher voice usage.
“Hopefully, we will complete it by end of the year,” Nazareno said.
At present, the country’s largest telecommunication company has more than 9,000 cell sites nationwide, covering 99 percent of the population.
Of the total cell sites of PLDT, about 114 are running on renewable energy, both wind and solar.
Manuel Pangilinan, PLDT chairman, had said his company may post “better” growth in the third quarter of the year mainly because of its broadband business.
At end-June, the PLDT group’s total broadband subscribers stood at 2.96 million.
Wireless broadband revenues amounted to P3.4 billion, up 26 percent compared to P3.4 billion in the first half of 2009.
Owned by Hong Kong’s First Pacific Co. Ltd. and Japan’s NTT Communications and NTT DoCoMo, PLDT said its consolidated net income grew by 10 percent to P21.7 billion in the first half of this year, from P19.7 billion last year.
Excluding foreign exchange gains and other non-recurring income, PLDT recorded a core profit of P21.2 billion, or up 2 percent from P20.8 billion last year.
Consolidated service revenues went down by one percent to P72.2 billion from a year ago.
The company had set a core profit guidance in excess of P41 billion and capital investments at P28.6 billion.*PNA
