Silent at hiscorner

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I could care less about growth figures.

For the first half of this year, the big telco companies are all claiming increase in profits, in patronage, in reliability. All the indicators and indices improved when compared to year-ago levels. Naturally. Should be.

Converge ICT Solutions, Inc. is also doing it. It is now a force to reckon with in fiber rollouts as translated to higher revenues. For the first half of this year, it has posted 158 percent surge in net income (from P1.2B to P3.252B), 81.5 percent in consolidated revenues (from P6.4 B to P11.78 billion), 105.2 percent in residential revenue, (from P4.9 B to P10.2 B)

Aside from the Year on Year figures (YoY), the Return On Industry Capital (ROIC), Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) showed very strong financial performance.

On client data front, Converge had 85 percent in customer rise with 1,355,079 subscribers where it now has the lion’s share of household coverage of 56.9 percent in Luzon (32.5 in the whole country) with its 0.6 million Fiber To The Home (FTTH) port rollouts.

It now covers 8.3 million homes in the entire Philippines, remaining on track to reach about 55 percent target in the next four years.

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Now, don’t be confused nor feel drowned with all these numbers. Figures aside, there is more beneath the surface.

One must remember that Converge is relatively a newcomer in multi-billion dollar telco industry in the Philippines and Asia. One must remember like legacy companies like PLDT Inc which has been in existence for the past 93 years could be ahead of the race. But Converge, since getting congressional franchise in 2009 is slowly biting the heels of industry giants with its offering of pure end-to-end fiber internet provision to households.

One must remember that it has diversified to fiber only recently with its humble business roots traceable only to VHS and Betamax rental shop in the

1980s. No less than Converge Founder and CEO Dennis Uy, his brothers Jack and Allan, served at their own “be kind, please rewind” store. I remember them recommending to me some movie titles and even turning blind eye to my late return of tapes in their allocated space at their uncle Johnny’s Supermarket in Angeles City. Oh yes, please don’t be confused -- Dennis Uy of Luzon, not that namesake from Davao of Udenna.

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Converge would always be mentioned even in press briefings by PLDT (I don’t know about Globe Telecom because it has been failing to reach out to local media).

PLDT President Al Panlilio, answering question by this writer last week, said that they have “a hyper competitive market” today where they face challenges on both sides (fixed broadband and cellular ser vi ces) .

While putting up a decent showing of his own, Dennis would simply dismiss the race as “friendly competition”. He would simply state that he is mindful only about the benefits to customers and subscribers that “competition” would bring.

I would understand Dennis saying so, with him being a partner in some business ventures like the Comstech of Pelco 2, an electric cooperative in Pampanga with fellow Capampangan PLDT and Meralco Chairman Manny V. Pangilinan.

You see, Dennis is one business person who may not have “competition” in his vocabulary. He is one guy who would just silently do his job in one corner and would eventually find himself big without even him knowing it.

This, he had done when he was into computer repairs and supplies in the 1990s (where I personally saw him carrying with his own hands those bulky desktop units at Greenhills in one of his trips there). Eventually, he became big with office automation in computer- and program-based enterprise solutions for huge corporations.

This, he had done when he himself personally laid wires and cables on the streets when they started Angeles City Cable TV Network. Eventually, he became big not just with majority of Central Luzon subscribers but now also in Internet Protocol TV.

This, he had done when he also joined IT-related trade missions to learn from the experts. I remember him joining us and a group of Clark locators in a trip to San Francisco in the late 1997. It was a trip to Silicon Valley where we had visits to some leading IT and microchip/semicon companies. From his learnings back then, eventually, it won’t be surprising if Dennis would indeed find himself in a venture on outer space exploration missions like the Space-X.

Again, our man silent in his corner just got Converge a highly coveted blue chip status in the PSE Index in less than a year after turning it to a publicly listed company.

Silent at his corner, he has won accolades and admirations not just for himself and Converge but even for the telco industry and the country.