PHILIPPINE LONG DISTANCE TELEPHONE COMPANY

History
PLDT was established on November 28, 1928, by an Act of the Philippine Legislature
and approved by then-Governor-General Henry L. Stimson by means of a merger of four
telephone companies under common US ownership. Known as Act 3436, the bill granted PLDT
a 50-year charter and the right to establish a Philippine telephone network linking major points
nationwide. However, PLDT had to meet a 40-day deadline to start implementing the network,
which would be implemented over a period of one to four years.
By the 1930s, PLDT had an expansive fixed-line network and for the first time linked the
Philippines to the outside world via radiotelephone services connecting the Philippines to the
United States and other parts of the world.
Telephone service in the Philippines was interrupted due to World War II. At the end of the war,
the Philippines' communications infrastructure was in ruin. U.S. military authorities eventually
handed over the remains of the communications infrastructure to PLDT in 1947, and with the
help of massive U.S. aid to the Philippines during the 1940s and 1950s, PLDT recovered so
quickly that its telephone subscribers outpaced that of pre-war levels by 1953.
On December 20, 1967, a group of Filipino entrepreneurs and businessmen led by Ramon
Cojuangco took control of PLDT after buying its shares from the American telecommunications
company GTE. The group took control of PLDT's management on January 1, 1968, with the
election of Gregorio S. Licaros and Cojuangco as chairman and president of PLDT respectively.
A few months later, PLDT's main office in Makati City (known today as the Ramon Cojuangco

Building) was opened, and PLDT's expansion programs begin, hoping to bring reliable telephone
services to the rural areas.
On July 18, 1968, Pilipino Telephone (Piltel) was incorporated in the Philippines with
limited liability. Piltel's sole business at that time was providing fixed line telecommunications
services in eight cities and municipalities in the Philippines.
During the 1970s, PLDT was nationalized by the government of then-President
Ferdinand Marcos and in 1981, in furtherance of the then existing policy of the Philippine
government to integrate the Philippine telecommunications industry, purchased substantially all
of the assets and liabilities of Republic Telephone Company, becoming the country's telephone
monopoly. However, after he was overthrown, the company was re-privatized. By 1995, with the
passage of the Telecommunications Act and the subsequent deregulation of the Philippine
telecommunications industry, the company had been de-monopolized.
In 1991, Smart Communications was incorporated, with its major shareholders at the time
being certain Philippine companies and other affiliates of First Pacific (the parent company of
PLDT), as well as NTT Communications Capital (UK) Limited. Both groups owned around
96.7% of the new company. In the same year, Piltel launched its cellular telephone services using
Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS) technology, which was subsequently upgraded to
Digital AMPS later on.
In 1993, Piltel launched its paging services, and introduced digital cellular services using
code division multiple access (CDMA) technology on 1997.
On March 24, 2000, PLDT completed its share-swap acquisition of Smart, making Smart a
100%-owned PLDT subsidiary. In April 2000, Piltel launched a digital prepaid cellular service

using the Global System for Mobile Communications ("GSM") platform of Smart. A few years
later, PLDT transferred its ownership of Piltel to Smart, thereby consolidating all of PLDT's
wireless operations under Smart.

PLDT logo and its meaning

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