PLDT boosts domestic fiber optic network

MANILA, Philippines - Telecommunications leader Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) is implementing multiple redundancy enhancement plans for its 10,000-kilometer domestic fiber optic network (DFON) to meet increasing demand for improved resiliency and capacity of the offshoring and outsourcing (O&O) industry in several key regions in Luzon and Mindanao.

PLDT’s DFON consists of 10 major fiber optic loops across the country which currently offers 1.6 terabit per second capacity. It has also acquired a fully-supported ROADM (reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer) that has been deployed and upgraded since 2009.

ROADM has enabled PLDT to dynamically provision end-to-end, ultra-high-speed connections across its extensive multiple fiber loop network. This could fully support the growing O&O industry whose revenues are expected to expand to as much as $25 billion by 2016.

 “PLDT has already provisioned the necessary ICT connectivity in the various O&O industry’s chosen locations of opportunity. We have been working with the industry in order to ensure that O&O firms will have the capacity and resiliency they require to compete in the global market,” PLDT senior vice president and customer sales and marketing group head Eric Alberto said.

PLDT is targeting the completion of parallel underground fiber in nine segments of DFON along North and Central Luzon to Manila by November 2011, while six segments linking Manila to South Luzon where major industrial parks are located are also in progress and are expected to be finished by January 2012.

PLDT has also earlier announced the completion of a new undersea and inland cable that provides third resilient route between Visayas and Luzon.

The new fiber optic cable from Cagayan de Oro to Davao via Bukidnon is set to enhance resiliency of the existing self-healing Mindanao fiber optic loop with a third leg by the first quarter of 2012. This ensures enhancement in Mindanao’s major O&O center’s growing traffic with third-route resiliency.

 “PLDT has accelerated expansion into ‘next wave’ cities based on the forecasts of the O&O sector and we have taken the brave pioneering steps based on those projections. We have continued to enhance network quality, capacity, diversity, redundancy and other specifications that will allow the industry to exploit its growth momentum,” Alberto added.

Before the year ends, PLDT’s Internet gateway, which is connected to multiple international cable routes will also see improvement, bringing a total of 250 Gbps in total capacity - twice as much as any other provider in the country.

“PLDT has built according to the future specs of the O&O industry, allowing triple-level redundancies in our major fiber optic loops. All this is to ensure that connectivity so vital to those industries will not fail, and that the Philippines retain its status as the most-preferred outsourcing destination for the world,” Alberto pointed out.