Oct 03 04

Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (TEL.PH) Friday said its cellular subscriber base has exceeded 17 million.

The subscriber base combines that of subsidiary Smart Communications Inc., the country's largest mobile phone company, and affiliate Pilipino Telephone Corp. (PLTL.PH), or Piltel.

Smart added over 1.2 million subscribers in the second quarter, bringing its subscriber base to 12.5 million as of end-June.

The number of Piltel subscribers expanded by 470,000 in the same quarter, bringing the total to 3.5 million subscribers at end-June.

The cellular phone business is the main earnings growth driver of PLDT, the country's dominant telecommunications group.

PLDT reported its first-half net profit surged to PHP12.008 billion from PHP1.785 billion a year earlier, as revenue grew 20% on year to PHP55.59 billion from PHP46.22 billion.

For the second quarter alone, PLDT posted a net profit of PHP6.8 billion, more than double the year-ago level of PHP3.35 billion, due partly to increased cellular phone usage during the May 10 election period.