MANILA, Philippines - Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) has completed the P2.8-billion expansion of its domestic fiber optic network (DFON), further extending the reach and strengthening the resiliency of the country’s most extensive communications transmission network.
The project, which is part of the company’s DFON Resiliency Improvement Program, involved the installation of 1,300 kilometers of new terrestrial and submarine fiber optic cables to carry voice, data and video traffic in Bicol and the Visayas and Mindanao regions.
“Our transmission backbone is now much more resilient, thus raising the quality and reliability of our services. We can also provide more communities with both basic and advanced broadband services, unlocking new economic opportunities for central and southern Philippines,” PLDT president and CEO Napoleon Nazareno said.
In the past, accidental cable cuts have caused slowdowns in bandwidth speeds and even outages for some retail and corporate customers in the affected areas. Natural disasters have also adversely affected the network, hampering vital communications to a certain extent.
“This latest DFON expansion greatly reduces the risk of downtimes which will benefit not only large corporations but also small businesses and households,” PLDT group head for customer service assurance Rolando Pena explained.
The project covers the third leg of DFON Loop 4 from Lucena City to Cebu City, passing through 11 provinces. There are 1,070 kilometers of terrestrial fiber optic cables and 230 kilometers of submarine fiber optic cables, with three new DFON nodes or stations in Calauag, Quezon; Naga, Camarines Sur; and Masbate, Masbate.
This expands the coverage of DFON in provinces such as Quezon, Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur, Sorsogon, Masbate, Capiz, Iloilo, Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental and Cebu.
The new facilities are equipped with the latest Automatic Switching Optical Network-Sub Network Control Protocol (ASON-SNCP) technology which will facilitate the automatic rerouting of traffic in the event of cable cuts to ensure seamless, uninterrupted telecommunications services.
Among the main beneficiaries of this are the call centers and business process outsourcing (BPO) companies that have high bandwidth requirements and that need resilient telecommunications networks.
“The reach and resiliency of our network are our key competitive advantage,” PLDT senior vice president and customer sales and marketing group head Eric Alberto added.
He explained that by investing in redundant facilities through the loops in DFON and various legs within the loops, PLDT has improved its ability to offer the levels of resiliency that industries like banks, BPOs and call centers require.
The completion of the DFON Loop 4 Third Leg has added 1,300 kilometers of terrestrial and submarine fiber optic cables to PLDT DFON, bringing the total to 10,050 kilometers connecting 68 nodes and equipped with a total network bandwidth capacity of 1.56 terabytes.