Eastern Telecoms strengthens Internet capability

Eastern Telecommunications Philippines Inc. is establishing a Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) in support of the Internet and data requirements of its corporate customers.

Through MAN, Eastern Telecoms will offer integrated services, providing premium Internet access to its corporate clients, Wilfredo Manansala, Eastern Telecoms assistant vice president for business development, disclosed.

Eastern Telecoms' roll-out of high-speed network is expected to provide affordable and scaleable Internet access services to its clients, thus boosting their capability to adopt to e-business, a growing trend in today's highly competitive market. This will directly support the initiatives of Eastern Telecoms' business clients in establishing web presence and in improving their e-business processes.

Angelo Molato, ETPI acting chief operating officer, expressed confidence that the proposed network deployment will strongly position Eastern Telecoms in the Internet access business. "The proposed Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) which will use Gigabit Ethernet and Digital Subscriber Lines (DSL) technologies will leapfrog ETPI's participation in the Internet market. With the market's bandwidth needs increasing, we have to make sure that our infrastructure capacity can continue to be sealed so that as new business requirements emerge, we can respond quickly. This will create a new and attractive approach on the provision of Internet access services and will position the company for the offering of other IP-based services," Molato added.

The Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) using Gigabit Ethernet technology will be initially deployed in selected buildings in Makati and Ortigas. This will dramatically enhance the offering of Eastern Telecoms' Internet Direct Service (IDS), making it possible to provide access capabilities up to 10Mbps into corporate Local Area Networks (LAN).

"Buildings in Makati and Ortigas will be connected via fiber optic rings that will run at gigabit speed. The interface into the customer networks will be via ethernet, the most widely used network access method of corporate LANs. This will mean that our customers will be able to upgrade their networks quickly and with minimal investment, and if required by their volumes, can even up upgrade to 100Mbps," Manansala explained.

"At the same time, Digital Subscriber Lines (DSL) will complement the MAN project by covering the rest of the commercial buildings in Makati and Ortigas and other locations where ETPI has existing copper lines. Eastern Telecoms' DSL will bring high bandwidth access capabilities, up to 8Mbps, to small and medium businesses", Manansala added.