In a briefing, Napoleon Nazareno, PLDT president and chief executive, told reporters that its net income went up by 3 percent to P10.6 billion from P10.3 billion in the same three-month period last year.
Despite the second-quarter increase, the telco's profit was still down 2 percent to P21.3 billion in the first six months of the year, from P21.7 billion last year.
Its core profit, which excludes foreign exchange gains or losses and other non-recurring income, also fell 3 percent to P10.5 billion in the second quarter from P10.7 billion last year. The first-half core net income also was down by a percent to P21.02 billion.
Partly owned by Hong Kong's First Pacific Co. Ltd. and Japan's NTT group, PLDT said consolidated service revenues fell 3 percent to P35.07 billion in the second quarter from P36.15 billion last year.
First-half service revenues also went down by 3 percent to P69.64 billion from P72.16 billion in 2010.
Nazareno blamed the decline on slower economic activity, a strong peso and the intense competition in the industry.
He said the peso appreciation translated to a P900 million lesion in revenues.
Had the peso remained stable, the decline in service revenues year-on-year would have been 2 percent, he said.
About 26 percent of consolidated revenues are directly or indirectly linked to the US dollar.
In the first half of the year, the peso averaged 43.36 against the US dollar, stronger than the 46.42 in the same period last year.
"We expect revenues to remain under pressure for the near term," Nazareno said.
"Nonetheless, we are confident that with our cost discipline and focus on innovation, we will continue to produce value for our customers and shareholders," he added.
Wireless service revenues fell 4 percent to P45.7 billion in the first semester compared with the P47.9 billion in the same period last year.
Cellular voice revenues declined 7 percent to P19.9 billion, while cellular data/text revenues dropped 2 percent to P20.6 billion.
At end-June, the PLDT group's total cellular subscriber base stood at 47.8 million, up 5 percent, or 2.2 million from the end of last year.
Mobile unit Smart Communications Inc. recorded net additions of 0.8 million subscribers to end with 26.5 million in the first semester, while Talk 'N Text added about 800,000 to end with 19.8 million subscribers during the same period. Red Mobile had about 1.5 million subscribers.
Smart wireless broadband subscribers stood at 1.5 million.
Wireless broadband revenues, inclusive of mobile Internet revenues, increased by 5 percent to P4 billion, compared with the P3.8 billion in the first half of last year.
While the company had anticipated the softening of its income position from a year-on-year perspective, Manuel Pangilinan, PLDT chairman said the improvement in its first half results was "encouraging." Pangilinan said PLDT is maintaining its profit guidance of P40.5 billion for this year and 2012, higher by 2 percent than the P42.05 billion core profit in 2010.
Service revenues are projected to decline by 4 percent this year from the P142.2 billion in 2010.
PLDT shares fell to P2,398 each on Tuesday from P2,400 the day before.
