The facade of the PLDT building in Makati on May 09, 2019. George Calvelo, ABS-CBN News

MANILA — PLDT posted soft or modest growth in the first quarter of 2025 mainly driven by its Home unit and digital bank Maya. Telco core income however declined.

The company said its service revenues went up 1 percent to P49 billion, while EBITDA grew 2 percent to P27.9 billion. However, its telco core income fell 6 percent to P8.8 billion from P9.3 billion in the same period last year.

Revenues for its Individual segment down 1 percent to P21.2 billion. Enterprise segment revenues remain the same, while its Home segment is up 4 percent to P15.2 billion. Legacy services like SMS and voice in all three segments have negative growth.

“Both PLDT and Globe, the numbers have been soft for the first quarter. It’s slightly concerning. The overall macro environment is softening in relations to last year” said PLDT Chairman Manny Pangilinan.

Several factors were mentioned as to why the telco is experiencing soft’ growth. Among these are lower forex gains year-on-year, no tower sales recognized in the first quarter, higher depreciation charges, the shift of consumers from pocket wifi to mobile data, and even the exit of POGOs or Philippine Offshore Gaming Operations.

“Telco core income was at P8.8 billion lower by 6 percent year on year mainly due to increased depreciation from network expansion and associated financing costs,” PLDT Chief Financial Officer Danny Yu said.

But officials are happy with the continued growth of home fiber, with 101,000 new subscribers recorded in the first quarter, and fiber revenues growing 7 percent to P14.7 billion.

Maya also booked a profit in the first quarter contributing P127 million to the telco’s net income.

Yu said PLDT’s capital expenditures this year is at P68-70 billion and they have spent P10.8 billion in the first quarter. Projects this year are new cell sites, LTE/5G upgrade, AI-ready data center, submarine cable investments, upgrades and modernization of network among many others.