Manuel Pangilinan (right), chairman of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT), gestures during the 2015 First Quarter Financial and Operating Results press briefing as Napoleon Nazareno (center), CEO of Smart Communication, and Anabelle Chua (left), senior vice president looks on. AFP PHOTO
Philippine Long Distance Telephone, the country's largest telecommunications firm, said Tuesday it expects to spend nearly $1 billion in a "painful" fight to survive the consumer shift to digital from traditional phone services.