The Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) earned P31 billion core earnings on P108.3 billion consolidated revenues for the first nine months of 2009, up 11 percent from P27.8 billion in the same period in 2008, as it piled in P361-million equity share in the earnings of Meralco, slashed 5 percent from its operating expenses and saw a 3 percent boost in its sales fueled by the 4 percent growth in data and broadband revenues.

Reported net income of P30 billion likewise increased 15 percent from P26.2 billion in the same period, as its recurring income went up by P3.2 billion and the company registered lower losses from foreign exchange revaluation of its assets, liabilities and derivatives plus slashed statutory tax rates. Consolidated EBITDA (earnings before income taxes, depreciation and amortizations) remained stable at P65.7 billion while EBITDA margin was 61%.

Wireless service revenues rose to P71.2 billion for the first nine months of 2009, 3% higher than the P68.8 billion recognized in the same period last year. Cellular subsidiary Smart Communications, Inc. continues to lead the industry in terms of both revenues and subscribers.

The PLDT Group’s total cellular subscriber base for the first nine months of 2009 grew to 39.1 million subscribers, a 15% growth year-on-year. For the first nine months of 2009, Smart added 3.9 million subscribers, compared with 4.1 million in the same period of 2008. Smart recorded net additions of over 1.6 million subscribers to end the period with 22.5 million subscribers while Talk ‘N Text added 2.2 million subscribers to end the period with 16.6 million subscribers.

Cellular voice revenues improved by 4% to P28.5 billion while cellular data revenues were flat at P35.5 billion. Wireless broadband revenues grew 26% to P4.1 billion, a significant improvement over the P3.2 billion recorded in the first nine months of 2008.

SmartBro, Smart’s wireless broadband service – through its wholly-owned subsidiary Smart Broadband, Inc. – continued to expand as its wireless broadband subscriber base grew 70% to reach approximately 802,000 as at end-September 2009, 372,500 of which were on SmartBro’s prepaid service.

Smart continues to invest in its cellular and multi-platform broadband networks while upgrading its existing transmission, core and access facilities. Smart’s 3G and HSPA networks now cover 50% and 44% of the country’s population, respectively.

Fixed line service revenues increased by 4% to P38.2 billion in the first nine months of 2009 from P36.7 billion in the same period last year as the 17% increase in data revenues, both from corporate data and residential DSL services, was somewhat attenuated by declines in other segments of the business. National long distance revenues decreased while international long distance revenues continued to weaken due to the shifting of traffic to cellular and other means of communications. Local exchange revenues declined 1% due to the bundling of voice and data services, though somewhat mitigated by the increase in postpaid billed lines.