PLDT Home over-delivered on its targets for 2021 despite COVID-19 lockdowns and natural disasters, posting record-breaking performance that helped drive the growth of PLDT Inc., the Philippines’ largest telecommunications company.

The aggressive expansion allowed PLDT Home to pass more than half of the country’s estimated 25 million households as well as connect additional 1.13 million new Fiber subscribers — 10% more than its goal.

PLDT Home is committed to further expanding its fiber footprint to reach the most number of homes in the shortest possible time to realize PLDT Home’s mission of bettering the lives of Filipino families.

“The pandemic has shown us how a strong and reliable home internet connection is essential to our everyday lives, it allows us to continue to work, study and connect with our loved ones while keeping us safe at home, and that is what is most important to us, helping make the lives of Filipino families better,” said Jeremiah de la Cruz, Senior Advisor of PLDT Home Business.

PLDT Home’s service revenues from its Fiber business surged 91% year-on-year to P9.8-billion in the fourth quarter despite the impact of Super Typhoon Odette. This drove full year revenues of the Fiber business to grow 82-percent year-on-year to P33-billion. Total Home service revenues for 2021 was at an all-time high P47.8-billion, up 24-percent from 2020.

“The momentum we have generated last year underpins our expectations for even stronger results in 2022, especially as we complete our copper service migration by end 2022 and as customers continue to demand faster and more reliable Internet connectivity,” said de la Cruz, whose professional experience includes working in telecommunications companies in Australia and Indonesia.

At the end of 2021, PLDT Home’s total fiber capacity stood at 5.77-million ports, expanding fixed broadband service to nearly 60-percent of all the 1,634 cities and towns nationwide. A total 1.7-million additional fiber ports were installed in 2021.

The fixed broadband business of PLDT extended its fiber footprint to 13.9 million homes passed last year, exceeding its target of 13 million homes passed.

PLDT Home closed 2021 with three million subscribers, up 87-percent from the 2020 level. Net additions on fiber installations reached an average of 107,000 a month and 35,000 monthly average migration per quarter, reaching 326,000 net fiber adds in the fourth quarter of 2021.

The fiber penetration in the Philippines offers a lot of growth for fixed-line operators as only one in every five of the estimated 25-million Filipino households are connected to a fiber connection.

“The penetration rate of home fiber in the Philippines is approximately 20%. This is both an opportunity for further growth especially in rural areas, as well as a challenge for us to do better and get as many homes connected to fiber,” said de la Cruz.