After several quarters of declines, the Philippines' PLDT has reported a 13% increase in core net income for the first quarter of 2018 to 6 billion pesos ($115.5 million).
Reported net profit including one-off gains grew 39% to 6.9 billion pesos, the operator said.
Consolidated service revenue excluding interconnection costs grew 1% to 35.87 billion pesos under the new PFRS 15 accounting standard adopted by the company at the start of the year. Total consolidated service revenue grew 3% to 36.7 billion.
Excluding revenues from PLDT's international and Voyager Innovations segments, service revenue grew 6% year-on-year to 32.9 billion pesos.
Consumer fixed services division PLDT Home grew revenues by 14% year-on-year to 8.9 billion pesos. Enterprise revenue meanwhile grew 7% to 9.2 billion pesos, while wireless data and ICT services revenue grew by 22% and 15% respectively.
Revenue from data, broadband and digital platforms grew to account for 50% of PLDT's total service revenues for the quarter, up from 45% a year ago.
Mobile internet revenue jumped 29% to 5.9 billion pesos, while home broadband revenue was up 18% to 5.6 billion pesos.
“In the first quarter of 2018, we maintained the strong growth of our Home and Enterprise businesses and succeeded in posting modest gains in revenues for the Individual Wireless business. After several quarters of challenged revenues, this upswing is definitely encouraging,” PLDT chairman and CEO Manuel Pangilinan said.
“But we are keenly aware that it has taken great efforts and historic investments to get this far. And that it will take persistence and perseverance to keep PLDT firmly on the growth path.”