Smart brings power of fiber optics to Boracay

MANILA, Philippines - Picture a wire made of glass no thicker than a strand of human hair. Now, imagine millions of calls, billions of text messages, and trillions of bytes of data traveling on it, all at the same time. That is the power of fiber optics, as described by Rolando Peña, head of technology for Smart Communications Inc. and its parent firm, PLDT.

Fiber is designed to transmit data in the form of light pulses, literally delivering calls, SMS, and data at the speed of light. With virtually unlimited transmission capacity, fiber is the technology expected to shape the future of communications.

Smart recently sent a team of engineers and technical divers to lay 2.5 kilometers of fiber optic cables (FOC) on the seabed between Boracay island and mainland Caticlan, completing the link from Roxas City.

Fiber optic cabling is regarded by experts worldwide as the most “future-proof” form of cabling ever created, and Smart has the most extensive FOC network in the country. Covering more than 54,000 kilometers, Smart’s network is four times greater than any of its competitors.

This means that unlike any other network, Smart’s almost 54 million mobile subscribers and close to two million broadband subscribers can make calls, send and receive text messages, and download and upload data faster and more efficiently compared to others.

That’s just what a place like Boracay needs. By year-end, it is expected to host up to 1.5 million visitors, who will be making thousands of calls, sending millions of text messages, browsing the Internet for hours, and sharing photos — using their smartphones and tablets — of any number of the islands’ picture-perfect spots.

“Although Smart is a wireless services provider, fiber is critical to the delivery of our services,” says Peña. “Fiber allows our cell sites to send data a lot faster from the core network to your device, even over long distances — and this translates to an even better mobile experience.”

To complete the Boracay fiber link and deliver the promise of fiber optics to the world-famous destination, Smart plotted a route using GPS equipment and avoiding coral formations, across the narrow Tabon Strait separating Boracay from the larger Panay Island where Barangay Caticlan is.

Beach manholes were then constructed at both the Tambisaan Beach, Boracay side and the Tabon Beach, Caticlan side.

Following the pre-determined route and with the eight-ton spool of five kilometers of submarine FOC loaded on a landing carrier type (LCT) vessel, one end of the cable was pulled manually by technical divers from the vessel to the manhole at Tambisaan Beach in Boracay.

The LCT vessel then sailed toward Tabon Beach in Caticlan following the marker buoys, gradually releasing the cable from the spool, with teams of divers going 30 meters down into the waters to check and arrange the cable to make sure it followed the planned path.

Docking at a safe distance from the beach, the other end of the FOC was again manually pulled by the divers toward the other beach manhole.

Pre-fabricated, concrete split-tube slabs were then sunk, to keep the cables in place and to “wrap” them and serve as armor protection.

At the beach sides, where water levels are shallow, the FOCs were also wrapped with concrete armor before they were buried more than a meter deep until finally reaching the beach manhole.

With this submarine link now in place, it now connects the two separate inland fiber loops already existing at both Boracay and Caticlan ends. This system of FOCs is ultimately expected to provide significantly improved services to establishments and tourists alike in the area.

“Smart is literally going to great depths to deliver the promise of fiber to our subscribers, wherever they may be,” says Peña.

“What this means is that Smart users in Boracay will now enjoy an even better, more reliable experience, and this means crystal-clear calls, on-time delivery of text messages, and high-speed mobile Internet, even as they enjoy the charms of Boracay,” he adds.