PLDT completes Bohol fiber optic cable network

MANILA, Philippines - Leading telecoms and multimedia service provider Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) has completed a P600-million fiber optic cable in Bohol.

PLDT president and CEO Napoleon Nazareno said the fiber optic cable project would provide Bohol with high bandwidth connectivity that is expected to boost the economy of Central Visayas.

The 245-kilometer inland and submarine fiber optic cable (FOC) network connects the island in the north from Loon to Mactan in Cebu and in the south from Garcia Hernandez to Kinoguitan in Misamis Oriental.

By providing a third link to Mindanao, the Bohol fiber link project bolsters the PLDT’s network resiliency, making it less susceptible to outages from fiber cuts caused by natural disasters like earthquakes or heavy storms.

The PLDT Group’s fiber optic network of more than 85,000 kilometers of inland and submarine cables is the most extensive in the country.

Aside from strengthening the resiliency of PLDT domestic fiber optic network (DFON), the new fiber link would attract more investments into the province and at the same time lure more tourists.

“This new fiber link will boost Bohol’s thriving tourism industry and enable the province to attract more business process outsourcing companies to set up shop there,” Nazareno said.

Aside from Bohol, Nazareno said PLDT would continue to improve Internet infrastructure all over the country.

“We will continue to expand our Internet infrastructure to support the development efforts of different parts of the country. This will spread more equitably the benefits of the strong growth of the country’s economy,” he said.

PLDT Technology Group head Rolando Peña said the Bohol DFON is equipped with up to 50G capacity to support the increasing demand for greater bandwidth in both fixed and wireless services by corporate customers.

Peña explained that the new fiber optic cable facilities also allow PLDT to provide fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) services and support the operations of its wireless subsidiaries Smart Communications and Sun Cellular.