Philippine telcos are on track to spend more on their networks in 2026 than in any previous year. The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) said capital spending by PLDT, Globe, Converge, and DITO could reach $2.4 billion to $2.45 billion — about ₱152.88 billion — once all commitments are counted, Newsbytes.PH reported from the agency's September statement.
"Crossing the $2-billion mark sends a clear message: the telecommunications industry believes in the Philippines," DICT Secretary Henry Rhoel Aguda said. "These investments will translate into more infrastructure, better connectivity, new jobs, and greater opportunities for Filipinos as we continue building a digital-first economy."
Where the ₱153 billion is coming from
Disclosed spending by PLDT, Globe, and Converge already totals about $2.21 billion (around ₱138 billion); DITO's expected investment pushes the industry total past $2.4 billion. The breakdown DICT cited:
| Company | 2026 capital spending |
|---|
| PLDT | About ₱55 billion (~$930 million) |
| Globe Telecom | Below ₱59.4 billion ($950-970 million) |
| Converge ICT | ₱17-20 billion (~$310 million) |
| DITO Telecommunity | $170-250 million, below its 2025 level of ₱15-18 billion |
The figures are DICT's own tally of company disclosures and expectations, so the final numbers will depend on how each telco actually executes through the year.
The $500-million subsea cable plan
Alongside the capex tally, DICT reiterated support for a proposal by Globe, PLDT, and Converge to build a $500-million (around ₱31 billion) domestic undersea fiber-optic network running from Batanes in the far north to Palawan, with links to the Visayas and Mindanao. The private cable would complement the government's own National Fiber Backbone, extending high-capacity connectivity to islands that terrestrial fiber cannot reach.
Subsea capacity is the quiet constraint on Philippine internet quality: an archipelago cannot be wired end-to-end on land, and redundancy matters when a single cut can isolate whole provinces. Globe has separately been pushing for a national underground conduit policy after 14,000 fiber cuts in 2025 — the same resilience problem, on land.
The policy backdrop
DICT credits part of the investment surge to the Konektadong Pinoy Act, enacted in August 2025, which removed the congressional franchise requirement for qualified data transmission providers, streamlined permits and licensing, and promoted infrastructure sharing and competition. Lower barriers to building networks were meant to pull in exactly this kind of capital, and the agency is presenting the 2026 numbers as evidence the law is working.
The department also spelled out where it expects the spending to matter beyond phone signal. In its statement, DICT said the network buildout underpins digital government services, e-commerce, cloud computing, artificial intelligence workloads, data centers, and connectivity for education and healthcare — the sectors the government leans on as it pushes a digital-first economy agenda.
What subscribers should actually expect
Capex is the leading indicator of whether your internet gets better. ₱153 billion spread across four operators pays for new cell sites, fiber rollouts, 5G upgrades, and the unglamorous core-network work that decides real-world speeds. It will not fix every dead spot in 2026 — network builds lag spending by quarters — but the direction is what counts: this is the first year Philippine telco investment crosses the $2-billion line, and the subsea proposal suggests the operators are planning for capacity well beyond it. The near-term things to watch are whether DITO sustains its build while spending less than in 2025, and whether the subsea cable moves from proposal to approved project.
