29 November 2024

PLDT has secured a PHP2 billion social loan facility from HSBC Philippines to finance its fibre infrastructure rollouts to underserved and unserved communities.

Social loans are financing solutions where the proceeds are invested in ways that generate ‘positive social outcomes,’ which can include things like increasing access to affordable basic infrastructure and essential services.

PLDT said that the social loan will support further expansion of its fibre network infrastructure to reach fourth to sixth class municipalities in the Philippines, including so-called geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas (GIDAs) where internet connectivity has not yet reached.

The Philippine Statistics Authority has designated 729 municipalities as fourth to sixth class as of June 2024, which means their average annual income is less than PHP35 million. PLDT’s fibre network currently covers 59% of those municipalities. However, of the over 7,000 GIDAs in the country, PLDT has rolled out fibre to just 767. PLDT said it has outlined plans to extend fibre services to more municipalities in the coming years, prioritizing areas most in need of connectivity.

“By expanding our presence in GIDAs and low-income municipalities, we are helping to foster inclusive growth and development in some of the most remote parts of the country,” said PLDT’s chief sustainability officer Melissa Vergel de Dios.

“This project will help support the improvement of access to the internet for Filipinos in these underserved areas so that they can actively participate and compete in the digital economy,” said HSBC Philippines head of wholesale banking Mimi Concha.