PHILIPPINE LONG DISTANCE TELEPHONE Co. (PLDT) expects its profit to rise in the first quarter of the year amid stronger economic conditions and the growth in its broadband and data services segment.

PLDT chair Manuel V. Pangilinan said the country?s largest phone firm, which will officially announce its financial results on May 13, might post a higher net income in the first three months of the year, tracking the company?s full-year goal of a rise in core earnings.

?The first quarter will be better than last year,? Pangilinan said.

?It?s really the broadband business that?s driving it. But there?s also growth in the mobile and the data services segments,? he added.

In the first quarter of last year, PLDT posted a profit of P9.6 billion, or an 8-percent drop year on year.

The company, which is owned by Hong Kong?s First Pacific Co. Ltd. and Japan?s NTT DoCoMo, said growth would come mainly from its broadband Internet business segment.

Smart Communications, a PLDT subsidiary, is currently the country?s largest mobile network with more than 40 million subscribers and over a million broadband users.

Its rival, Ayala-led Globe Telecom, has more than 23 million mobile phone users and about 800,000 broadband subscribers at the start of the year.