MANILA, Philippines--Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) is well positioned to sustain its leading market position and maintain its sound financial profile, according to an assessment by international credit watchdog firm Fitch Ratings.

Fitch Ratings affirmed PLDT?s long-term foreign and local currency issuer default ratings (IDR) at ?BB+? and ?BBB,? respectively, and its national long-term rating at ?AAA(phl).? The rating outlook given was ?Stable.? PLDT?s global bonds and senior notes have been affirmed at ?BB+.?

?PLDT?s ratings reflect its position as the Philippines? incumbent operator, with diversified and integrated operations across fixed-line services, cellular services, wired and wireless broadband services, and Internet services, as well as a growing presence in the call center and business process outsourcing space,? Fitch said in a statement.

Fitch said PLDT subsidiaries Smart Communications Inc. and Pilipino Telephone Corp.?s combined 33.2 million subscribers at end-June 2008 represented a subscriber market share of 54 percent and a revenue market share of around 58.5 percent.

Fitch noted that PLDT was well positioned to capitalize on growth opportunities in consumer broadband and business process outsourcing. These segments could help offset slowing growth in core segments such as cellular services, where high market penetration is seen to result in less subscriber growth.