PLDT Inc. (TEL) chaired by bilyonaryo Manny V. Pangilinan is planning to repurpose the excess 5G equipment it purchased over the last few years.
“The 5G assets in the warehouses are not to be written off. Those 5G assets could either be
repurposed for 4G/LTE or deployed when 5G adoption in the market picks up,” TEL said in a disclosure clarifying Pangilinan’s briefing with analysts and select investors on Wednesday, December 21.
TEL said Pangilinan was referring to the “older equipment that serve the 2G, 3G and legacy” which would comprise the bulk of the P50 billion to P55 billion worth of assets likely to be written off this year to cure the P48 billion overspend from 2019 to 2022.
The firm admitted that it had to defer the 5G rollout due to the “tepid market” demand for 5G handsets (which promise faster downloads but at higher premiums) because “these are still not affordable for most of the Philippine prepaid market.”
Its mobile unit, SMART, launched its 5G mobile network in July 2020, just just four months after the breakout of COVID-19, mainly to its postpaid subscribers in Metro Manila. (It introduced the 5G technology to its fixed broadband units in June 2019.) Smart budgeted P85 billion for its in 5G rollout nationwide starting in December 2021.
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