PLDT saw 8% rise in full-year 2020 net income to P24.3B

Pangilinan-led telco giant PLDT Inc. saw an 8% growth in its bottomline in 2020, despite a challenging business environment due to the COVID-19 pandemic, on the back of strong results across its businesses.

In a regulatory filing on Thursday, PLDT reported a net income of P24.3 billion, up 8% year-on-year.

This, after the telco posted its highest full-year revenue in its history of P171.5 billion, which grew 9% from  P157.7 billion a year earlier, led by data/broadband demand which rose 18% to P124.5 billion.

Telco core income, meanwhile, climbed 4% to P28.1 billion.

“Our key learnings from the pandemic can be summed up in two words: Transform and Perform. We have endeavored to keep PLDT at the forefront of digital changes, and we are enabling other companies to similarly adopt the digital mode of doing business. Part of PLDT's success during the pandemic lies in the perseverance of our people in keeping the business going despite the lockdown,” PLDT chairman, president and CEO Manuel Pangilinan said.

“Once restrictions were eased, the network buildout recommenced with an accelerated pace. The repairs and installs of our Home business also continued apace in the second half of this year. We are indebted to our sales frontliners who ensured that we were able to keep our services available to our subscribers and their communities, and are similarly grateful to our partner retailers. Meanwhile, we have also enabled the shift towards online payments and other forms of cashless payment systems that could be deployed to lessen the contact between our people, our staff and the customers,” he added.

In 2020, PLDT spent P71.9 billion, a bulk of which went to network upgrades.

“As a result of these investments, PLDT's fiber infrastructure, the most extensive in the country, stood at more than 429,000 kilometers at the end of 2020. PLDT had extended the reach of its fixed broadband service to cover some 9 million homes passed, whereas the total number of available fiber-powered ports increased to 4 million,” the telco said.

“This fiber infrastructure also supports Smart's wireless networks, which cover 96% of the population. As of end-December 2020, Smart had increased the number of its base stations to over 59,000, an increase of 20% compared to end-2019. As it accelerates its 5G commercial services nationwide this year, Smart plans to grow its 5G base stations by over 3,800, while expanding its LTE network by adding about 4,000 more base stations,” it added.—AOL, GMA News