PLDT to upgrade infra to boost cyberservices

The Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) has committed to upgrade its nationwide network to support the cyberservices industry in the country.

During the recent National Manpower Summit held at the PLDT InnoLab in Mandaluyong City, PLDT Corporate Business Group head Eric Alberto said telecommunications infrastructure is a key factor in choosing a suitable destination for cyberservices, which include business process outsourcing (BPO) and call center operations.

"PLDT has the largest fiber optic network in the country. By extending the reach of this fiber optic network and employing the latest technologies, we will be able to meet the demands of the cyberservices industry in the decades to come," he said.

"This will help attract foreign investments in the country. More investments mean more jobs for more Filipinos," he added.

Last December, PLDT completed the installation of the fiber optic link to Baguio City to accommodate increasing demand for higher-capacity voice, data and video services.

This fiber optic link increased the capacity of the existing microwave transmission facilities in the city by 64 times, to a capacity equivalent to 120,960 simultaneous calls from only 1,890. Because of this, Baguio City is now better positioned for the outsourcing business.

There are actually two fiber optic links with different routes to assure redundancy in the network. If the main link is down, the other will kick into action for continuous connection. This will answer the need for path diversity by many big companies who may decide to locate their operations in Baguio.

President Arroyo said the country’s digital infrastructure is part of her administration’s 10-point agenda and that telecoms companies like PLDT have a key role to play.

"By 2010, we see an ICT-enabled business environment that shapes and enables the economic dreams and aspirations of the 21st century Filipino," she said.

For this vision to become a reality, she said a three-fold mission is necessary: to develop a world-class cyberservices industry, to promote the competitiveness of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) through the use of ICT, and to strengthen the core segments of the ICT sector, including hardware, software, services, and telecommunications.

"We also foresee 250,000 ICT-enabled, broadband-connected SMEs by 2010. This will result in higher productivity and competitiveness, more ICT jobs, and greater demand for ICT products and services," the President said.

PLDT Corporate Business Solutions head Nerissa Ramos said Baguio is only part of PLDT’s expansion plans.

"There are plans to enhance this domestic fiber optic network or DFON this year. With our other data services such as IP-VPN (Internet Protocol-Virtual Private Network), we can provide for every need of bandwidth-hungry BPO companies, call centers and other big multinationals," she said.

Commissioner Damian Mapa of the Commission on Information and Commu-nications Technology revealed in his National Manpower Summit presentation at PLDT InnoLab that telecoms companies such as PLDT play a great role in equipping the Philippine Cyberservices Corridor.

"The Philippine cyberservices industry employed some 163,000 in 2005 with $2.1 billion in revenues. By 2010, more than one million will be employed in cyberservices and (there will be) $12.8 billion in revenues," he said.

With such projections, the country needs to be ready with the surge in demand for world-class telecom services.

The Philippine Cyberservices Corridor is an area stretching almost 1,000 kilometers from Baguio City in the north to Zamboanga in the south that is envisioned to provide a variety of cyberservices at par with global standards.

Mapa said the development of a world-class infrastructure must also be complemented by the development of world-class workforce.

Based on available information, he estimated that cyberservices jobs would average a yearly increase of almost 50 percent until 2010.

Workforce competencies must therefore be developed for customer contact centers, back-office operations, software development, medical transcription, animation, engineering design, legal transcription, digital content, and other data transcription.