PLDT units shift to new digital network (in Subic, Clark)

PHILIPPINE Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) said its units at the Clark and Subic economic zones have completed their migration to a new network technology and fiber optics so they could offer converged voice, data and multimedia services.

“The shift to NGN [next generation network] is in line with our efforts to offer our customers high-capacity broadband data services via fixed lines,” Napoleon Nazareno, PLDT president and chief executive, said.

NGN pertains to a network architecture and technology that encompasses voice, video and data communications. With NGN, all information is transmitted as packets of data, just like over the Internet.

That means an NGN line is already a high capacity conduit that can offer traditional telephone services, broadband internet, Internet Protocol TV and video streaming.

PLDT had spent P70 million for the network upgrade of its subsidiaries, PLDT Clark Telecom Inc. and PLDT Subic Telecom Inc.

PLDT ClarkTel now has 21 NGN nodes equipped with 6,336 ports, while PLDT SubicTel now has 20 NGN nodes equipped with 5,688 ports.

PLDT ClarkTel will complete its P25-million, 42-kilometer fiber optic network within Clark by September. This is on top of the P70-million network upgrade cited earlier.

PLDT SubicTel has already completed laying down its P19-million, 36-kilometer fiber optic cables.

The fiber optics component of the upgrade is part of PLDT’s Domestic Fiber Optic Network (DFON). The technologies used for DFON include Recon-figurable Optical Add/Drop Mul-tiplexing, Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing, Synchronous Digital Hierarchy and Multi Service Provisioning Platform.

Nazareno said this upgrade capitalizes on PLDT’s DFON, which now has a capacity of 1,200 gigabits per second or double that of other networks.

“Last year, we completed our P3-billion [DFON] expansion when we laid down additional 2,000 kilometers of fiber optic cables in key cities around the country,” he said.

“Now we are able to equip our subsidiaries with the capacity and the robustness of a world-class network. Locators in Subic and Clark as well as residential customers can now enjoy the innovations that the PLDT froup offers,” he added. (Darwin G. Amojelar, Manila Times)

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PLDT ‘innolabs’ target next-wave cities

Telecoms giant Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) is aligning its IT outsourcing strategy with the government’s next-wave cities program.

PLDT recently opened its latest innovation lab, or “innolab”, here (in Subic) targeting the freeport’s huge shipping and related businesses.

These innolabs feature best-of-breed technologies targeted to address specific IT requirements.

PLDT First Vice President and Head of Corporate Business Group Nerisse Ramos said local industries are already looking at a “globalized” market for their products and service but they are unaware of the technological practices to enable their goals.

A recent study by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) noted that the telecoms industry will ride the global crisis as broadband services become even more relevant both for businesses and individual users.

Companies are seen to migrate requirements to cost-effective and reliable managed services pitched by telecom firms.

PLDT is looking to make this pitch even to small and medium businesses, which comprise majority of businesses in the country.

“That’s why the outsourcing model works in the Philippines because many of these companies are unable to maximize their IT investments; they spend a lot without realizing these investments,” Ramos said.

Ramos said that one of their targets is to look at other locations with a community of businesses that can use Innolab services.

“We’re following the “Next Wave Cities” project of the government if we’re going to put up Innolabs,” Ramos said.

The Next Wave Cities project is led by the Commission on Information and Communications Technology. It aims to build the necessary public works and telecommunications infrastructure in certain areas in the Philippines to entice potential investors from abroad. (Alexander Villafania, Phil. Daily Inquirer)

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