By EMMIE V. ABADILLA
The Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) will have a new wave of technology investments which will require capital expenditures of around billion over the next three to four years, Chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan declared in yesterday’s stockholders’ meeting.
The greatest growth opportunity for the PLDT Group now rests on ePLDT, it’s Information Communication Technology arm, as the penetration of wireless cellular phones starts to flatten and declining voice business affect its wireline revenues, he pointed out.
"But we need to raise our investment in ePLDT as we are now doing for it to make a significant impact on our top line," he said.
This year will be a critical transition period for PLDT as it lays the foundation for the next phase of its growth, he explained. Already, PLDT has raised its 2006 core earnings expectation to P32 billion, up by more than 10 percent. Yet, "Benefits will emerge starting only in 2007. Growth in core earnings will modulate first before we return to a higher growth trajectory."
The PLDT Group sees 4 key technology drivers to its growth.
First is the dramatic growth in its wireline broadband infrastructure and services along with the emergence of wireless broadband technologies like Wi-Fi and WiMax which substantiates the company’s strategic investment in Meridian Telecoms.
Second is the advances in Third Generation (3G) mobile, particularly in terms of variety and pricing of handsets and its increasing capability for video and large file transfers.
Third is the Everything Over Internet Protocol revolution. "Thanks to the internet, traditional applications can now be carried more cheaply and more efficiently as general purpose applications on data networks," Pangilinan noted.
Fourth is the new opportunity for growth by way of new investments by ePLDT, specifically in call centers and business process outsourcing.
"This acquisition approach complements our strategy of organic growth, supporting our vision for a converged telecoms conglomerate," he went on.
It will also warrant the significant investment that PLDT is making in SPI Technologies, one of the largest BPO companies in the world.
"All these technologies will create new products and services, new revenue streams and entirely new businesses. This next wave of investments will require capital expenditures of approximately one billion US dollars over the next three years," he concluded.(EVA)
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