Converge ICT Solutions, Inc., a fiber broadband and technology solutions provider, hit another milestone in its operation when its subscriber base surpassed the two-million mark to reach 2,048,286 in September. This is a testament of the warm reception of the market for Converge products and services.
For the third quarter alone, gross additional subscribers reached over 225,000 or an 82% increase from the same period last year and 34% higher compared with the previous year. This represents the highest quarterly gross ads for residential subscribers in the past eight quarters.
“We’ve seen an uptick in the take up of our flagship FiberX brand with about 166,000 gross adds during the third quarter, the highest since Q1 2022, while newly introduced brands, Surf2Sawa and Bida Fiber, are strongly contributing to the total customer base with newly-acquired subscribers during the quarter reaching almost 60,000,” said Converge CEO and co-founder Dennis Anthony Uy.
“We expect more affordable broadband products to jointly contribute a million subscribers by 2025 – that’s how warm the reception has been and how confident we are in their prospects for continued growth,” he said.
Uy noted that Converge is an enabler to its customers by offering them not just best connectivity of its world-class cyber network but also solutions and value-added services. “No matter the size of the business, we have a solution that we allow them to take their business to the next level,” Uy said.
He also mentioned that Converge will continue its campaign towards empowering the mass market, making sure that every Filipino gains access to the world-class connectivity, regardless of location and economic status.
For its financial performance, Converge registered a 7% improvement in its consolidated revenues to reach PhP26.3-billion during the first nine months of 2023, compared with the same period last year. The increase in revenues was brought about by the robust expansion in the company’s residential customer base. The revenues were broken down as PhP22.5-bilion for residential business and PhP3.8-billion for enterprise.
Converge Chief Operations Officer Jesus Romero said the enterprise business is expected to contribute more to overall performance as Converge Business expands its offerings to go beyond connectivity.
“On top of our superior fiber connectivity, we are also packaging digital business solutions such as managed and value-added services to help transform businesses and fuel their growth,” said Romero.
With its sustained customer acquisition and prudent cost management, Converge registered a net income growth of 4% to P6.4 billion at end-September this year versus the year-ago level.
Converge president and co-founder Maria Grace Uy said robust growth prospects remain as the company continues to monetize its investments into its fiber network with FiberX gaining customers in newly-opened areas like North Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, and the low-cost postpaid Bida Fiber and S2S prepaid fiber internet showing encouraging traction in the more mature markets such as Central Luzon, South Luzon, and Metro Manila.
“We’ve invested ahead in our network so all these new connections are accretive to us. Our goal now is to further increase the utilization of our fiber network which is the broadest in the country,” she noted.
As of end-September 2023, Converge has deployed nearly 7.9 million fiber ports, making it the widest fiber to the home network in the country. This network now passes 16.7 million homes, covering 77.85% of the Philippine population.
Regarding Converge CAPEX, it still remains to be in line with expectation at PhP12-billion to PhP15-billion. By September 2023, cashout closed on CAPEX reached more than PhP5-billion. By 2024, a slight uptick on cash CAPEX is to be expected due to payments to be made on international sub-C cables during the second half. In 2025, the expected cash CAPEX will be even less than the 2023 levels assuming no new opportunities are taken out.
