PLDT allots P1B for Bohol network expansion

MANILA, Philippines - Dominant carrier Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) is injecting more than P1 billion to lay down 280 kilometers of inland and submarine cables to expand its fiber network in Bohol.

PLDT president and chief executive officer Napoleon Nazareno said the expansion is aimed at meeting the increased demand for telecoms and data services due to the expected expansion of the call center and outsourcing industries as well as the implementation of major development projects in the province.

“This fiber expansion program will enable PLDT to fully serve the growing communications requirements of the tourism and other industries in the province. This will also enable business processing and call center companies to set up shop in Bohol because they can rely on robust data networks supporting heavy bandwidth applications,” Nazareno said.

He explained that the P1 billion fiber expansion program in Bohol is part of PLDT’s P29 billion capital expenditures programmed for this year.

PLDT continues to fortify its fiber advantage as it expects to further extend its fiber assets to over 71,000 kilometers by yearend. Last year, the PLDT Group completed its P67.1 billion expansion program ahead of schedule.

“This gives us a decisive edge not only in the traditional fixed and mobile business, but more importantly, in data and video services,” he added said.

The fiber optic cable expansion projects in Bohol include the roll-out of two legs of inland and submarine cables adding more than 280 kilometers of fiber to PLDT’s network.

One leg of the expansion would run across Bohol’s southwest coastal corner and would be completed by March next year while the northeast corner leg is slated for completion in the fourth quarter.

PLDT’s expansion program would boost the existing 90-kilometer fiber network to support the New Bohol International Airport as well as various information and communication technology (ICT) projects in Panglao island.

Rolando Peña, group technology head of PLDT, said the Bohol fiber expansion project would provide PLDT’s Domestic Fiber Optic Network (DFON) a third leg link between Tagbilaran and Cagayan de Oro.

The project, according to him, would also make the Mindanao network more resilient and less susceptible to outage.

He said the new fiber optic cable facilities would allow PLDT provide fiber-to-the-home services and support the operations of its wireless subsidiaries Smart Communications and Sun Cellular particularly in providing the ultra-fast long term evolution (LTE) connection to its subscribers in the area.