PLDT Inc. noted an all-time high in customer acquisition for its broadband business, as demand online video streaming in the Philippines ramped up, a company executive said on Monday.
Oscar Enrico A. Reyes Jr., the company’s senior vice president and head for consumer business, said the telco was able to add as many as 2 million broadband subscribers in the first three quarters of 2018, boosting revenues by more than a tenth at end-September.
“People’s growing appetite for online video has helped raise the broadband penetration of PLDT Home to an all-time high of just under 2 million customers in the first nine months of 2018, an increase of 8 percent year-on-year in unique data service subscribers. This has boosted Home revenues by 12 percent in the third quarter of 2018 to P27.3 billion,” he said.
As of the third quarter of 2018, PLDT Home’s fiber coverage has already reached 5.75 million homes passed, exceeding the 5.3-million target for the full year of 2018.
He attributed this growth to the changing consumer habits, particularly the accelerating shift of content consumption to online video viewing from traditional broadcast television, citing a study by research company Limelight Networks, which found that viewers in the Philippines watches online videos for eight hours and 46 minutes each week.
Reyes said the company is capitalising on that trend through plan upgrades and strategic partnerships with Google to boost Wi-fi for the home.
“We’ve found that providing services like Google WiFi significantly improves the customer experience by ensuring that all parts of the home have strong broadband service,” Reyes said.
He said the company also boosted the capacity of its broadband facilities to 2.25 million ports, which is more than double than the previous year, and above the 2.2 million ports target.
As of end-September, the telco’s fiber footprint reached 221,000 kilometers, exceeding its target of laying out a total of 210,000 km of fiber for 2018.