Telecom heavyweights PLDT and China Unicom both boosted their nine-month profits by double-digit figures over the first three-quarters months of the year.
PLDT grew its profit 11% to 31 billion pesos ($549.64 million) on healthy subscriber growth and more favorable exchange rates. Revenue increased 3% to 108.3 billion pesos, with wireless revenue growing 3%.
Mobile subsidiary Smart added 3.9 million new subscribers, bringing its customer-base to 39.1 million. Smart said its 3G and HSPA networks now covered a respective 50% and 44% of the country's population.
Fixed-line revenue increased 4% to 38.2 billion pesos, as a 17% growth in data earnings more than offset declines in local, national and international calling revenue.
China Unicom meanwhile recorded a profit of 9.41 billion yuan ($1.38 billion) over the same period, a 33.5% improvement over its pre-consolidation profit in the corresponding period last year. Revenue reached 114.92 billion yuan.
The company announced it had reached its 1 millionth 3G user, but only sold 5,000 iPhones during the weekend launch.
This compares to sales of 270,000 first-generation iPhones in the first 30 hours after its US launch in 2007, and 1 million 3G S units in the first three days of its launch in several countries.