Al Panlilio: We’re undergoing a process now, in fact, we shared it with the Board. And we actually have a very short list, and we’re expecting some binding offers, hopefully by the latter part of November. Just precise — exactly which time, we’re looking for a strategic partner that will grow the business and operate it more efficiently, because of the experience of the partner that we are bringing.
Melissa de Dios: The next question is on Mobile. Have you seen any impact from DITO after it received fresh funding?
Al Panlilio: Alex?
Unidentified Company Representative: There has been on ground, as well as online action from the challenger. So obviously, they will have to ride on marketing offers that will go with the expansion of the network. We understand that a number of customers either from our side or from the other competitor, might be if I may say, frankly, trying to experiment and understand the impact, merit being second scene, inside of devices. But we have seen from the marketplace that a number of the customers have actually gone back to their primary service providers after understanding that the service is more reliable, more consistent and more predictable.
Melissa de Dios: Thank you, Alex. Next, here’s a question. What are your views on prepaid home broadband?
Al Panlilio: Jeremiah take that?
Jeremiah De La Cruz: Yes. Thanks, Al. So first, before I answer the question on prepaid home broadband, particularly prepaid fiber. I just want to remind everybody that PLDT is in a great position to be able to leverage two very, very strong networks. Our mobile network actually rated extremely high, in fact, performing both 5G as well as 4G, which enables us to be able to sell fixed wireless as an offering to customers to be able to service not only areas that we don’t have fiber, but to also service a different demographic and customer that may be looking for more of a sachet-based sort of infrequent usage for various reasons. The second one is our fiber network, which we have actually had quite an extensive rollout and we currently do enjoy about 60% utilization, right?
So we actually have about 60% of all of our ports with tolling customers. So we have two weapons that we’re able to leverage, but because of the situation that we’re in, I guess we’re approaching the market a little bit differently from our competition. We’ve lent our push into the prepaid space with fixed wireless, so we’ve actually seen fixed wireless as a category has been challenged in the market for the last 9 months. But what we are very pleased to be able to report back, is we’ve seen two consecutive quarters of growth in our fixed-wireless space. So we’ve actually seen a 5% quarter-on-quarter growth in terms of fixed wireless revenues. Now whilst that may still be somewhat small compared to, let’s say, for example, fiber revenues, it does show that there is a role for fixed wireless to play in being able to service the different customer needs for the different segments.
From a fiber perspective, we are actually — as we mentioned in the half year results, we do have plans to go into the prepaid fiber space. In fact, we are currently trialing with some of our existing customers now, our prepaid offering. The approach we are taking is much more measured approach though, we want to be very, very targeted with the areas that we make, prepaid fiber available, because we do currently enjoy the largest fiber base with a very, very high utilization rate. We want to make sure that prepaid fiber is something that’s revenue accretive as opposed to revenue dilutive. We’ve seen through some of the other information released by the competition that the prepaid fiber ARPUs are significantly lower than postpaid ARPUs. So we want to make sure that we do prioritize where it is possible, for our ports to be sold to postpaid customers where we get a higher yield.
And where we do have an abundance of prepaid, that’s where we’ll be using prepaid fiber. So to answer your question maybe in a shorter way, we do I think there is a role for prepaid fiber to actually play in the market. But we’re not only dependent on prepaid fiber to be able to service that segment. We also have the benefit of also using fixed wireless to be able to attack that segment of the market.
Melissa de Dios: The next question is you mentioned about the launch of a sovereign cloud, what are the potentials of this business? And what is the traction so far?
Unidentified Company Representative: Thank you for that question. When we built the sovereign cloud, we really had target markets in mind. One was the government services and the other one is the private sector. We felt that as part of our role to help digitalize the economy and help the administration also digitalize most of its public services, building a sovereign cloud in the Philippines was a first step for us in being able to offer that solution. This is a service that is similarly implemented or rolled out in other markets. We are actually the sixth or the seventh market in Asia to be able to roll out a sovereign cloud. So we feel that there’s going to be usage and traction for this. We cannot obviously say who the government agencies are given the sensitivity of data that we will be hosting. But it has been a welcome solution for a need that government agencies have been looking for quite some time.
Melissa de Dios: There’s a question on Maya. Are there any plans for fund raising?
Shailesh Baidwan: Yes, we are very much, as I mentioned, a couple of quick pointers to that. The business — actually all the business became segment EBITDA positive in the third quarter of this year, and we continue to push towards the overall company becoming cash positive towards the end of 2024. In the interim, while we are funded on a lot of the operating side as we expand our loan book, we do need access to capital for some of the regulatory capital and to grow the loan book. So we are concluding external funding round with our existing shareholders, to fund for the requirements that we have until 2024, we should be able to conclude that over the coming days and should be able to share details.
Al Panlilio: I just wanted to add to that, that PLDT will actually participate in a round in fact, we’ve increased its equity, and also increase equity in Maya.
Melissa de Dios: There’s a question on CapEx intensity. You’ve reduced your CapEx intensity significantly. How much lower can that go? And when do you expect it to get to the 25% level similar to other telcos in the region?
Al Panlilio: I’m not sure whether 25% is possible for us, Philippines, that hasn’t been done. Initially what we would like to do is, bring it down to 30% CapEx intensity. That’s a target maybe for next year or so.
Melissa de Dios: There’s a question on whether we’re planning to do any more tower sales?
Al Panlilio: Right now, we want to just complete first, what we have sold. There’s still quite a bit of — since we’ve done a lot in my summary, as I said that we have 5,900 towers, I think that we’re ready. I think for that we already closed in — so it’s only 79% to 80%. So there’s a bit — there’s still 20% that we continue to close, that we think is a big part of the chunk that we gave to you.
Melissa de Dios: Are there any other questions? There’s nothing in the queue. [Operator Instructions] And would you like to share some comments? There are no other questions in the queue.
Manny Pangilinan: [Foreign Language], nothing significant. So better stay quiet, which I didn’t, in the media, right?
Al Panlilio: You will not quote your own way. I think there’s a question from Herman Dela Paz.
Melissa de Dios: Let me see. Herman, please unmute your mic.
Unidentified Analyst: I’m okay. Yes. I have unmuted. Can you hear me?
Melissa de Dios: Yes. Yes, we can. Okay. There’s a question from Herman Dela Paz. Herman? If there are no further questions, I turn the floor over to our Chairman, Mr. Pangilinan, for any final words.
