Typhoon seen affecting PLDT profit in 2013

Dominant carrier Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) expects a dent in its 2013 profit due to lost business and higher spending to rebuild its network in areas affected by Supertyphoon “Yolanda.”

PLDT president and CEO Napoleon Nazareno also said the supertyphoon exposed the need for telecom companies to improve their construction methods to ensure that communication lines would not be vulnerable to natural calamities.

“We’re still consolidating the figures, but it has made a dent, of course,” Nazareno told reporters in a chance interview Wednesday.

PLDT’s net income for January to September this year reached P28.954 billion, up 2 percent year-on-year.

Nazareno declined to give firm estimates but said the company might set a slightly higher budget for capital expenditures (capex) next year to compensate for the damage caused by Yolanda.

The company’s original capex budget for 2014 was set at P29 billion. Nazareno said the company might end up spending more than this for reconstruction. He said PLDT was in the process of integrating the networks of its two wireless brands—Smart Communications and Sun Cellular—in Visayas.

“We have about 140 base stations that are down that we have to rebuild,” Nazareno said.

“We are also in the process of integrating the  Digitel/ Sun network with that of  Smart,  so we’re taking advantage of the situation to do the one network layout. It’s actually part of our budget,” he said.

In rebuilding its network, Nazareno said the company would ensure that its facilities would not be easily taken down by future typhoons.

Nazareno said PLDT would install its new fiber network lines higher off the ground. He said the company was also planning to deploy self-contained base stations and charging stations that have their own gasoline generators. These would be used to restore basic communications in areas where communication lines would be hit by typhoons.