PBCom Tower taps ETPI for fiber optic access

PBCom Tower, the tallest building in the country adds fiber-optic connectivity to its list of high-tech facilities. The Tower, nearly 60 stories high is located along Ayala Ave. and is one of the newest and most modern buildings in Makati. The PBCom Tower also has the distinction of being classified as an IT Park by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA). As an IT Park, tenants in the building enjoy special incentives such as tax breaks and duties importation exemption.

Eastern Telecommunications Phils. Inc. (ETPI) will provide the fiber-optic facility. The agreement was signed by PBCom president and chief executive officer Isidro C. Alcantara Jr. and Dr. Richard Freyer, chairman of ETPI.

"This new facility allows our tenants end to end fiber-optic connectivity from their office in the building up to their distant foreign mode," said Mr. Alcantara. "Our tenants are mostly multi-nationals and IT companies and thus telecommunications is critical to their operations. Most of them demand no less than high-bandwidth and fiber-optic access," added Mr. Alcantara.

"ETPI is pleased to be chosen as the provider of fiber-optic connectivity in one of the most prestigious addresses in Makati, " said Freyer. "PBCom will be one of the major nodes of ETPI’s Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) that spans the key financial districts of Makati, Ortigas and Manila. As part of the node, tenants in the building enjoy high-speed access to the Internet, Frame Relay, ISDN, virtual private network (VPN) access, voice over IP, video conferencing and video streaming. Tenants in this building will also be able to have instant access to a Gigabit Ethernet connection for rapid and cost effective connection to the Internet and other data services. With the IT Park Status, ETPI can also offer full-telephone services," added Freyer.

Alcantara and Freyer cited the state of the art IT facilities of the building will further boost the program of President Arroyo to turn the country into a center of information and communication technology (ICT) in the region.

The PBCom Tower is jointly owned by the Philippine Bank of Communications and Filinvest Asia Corp.

ETPI is a leading provider of data and Internet services in the country. It has one of the largest connectivity to the global Internet at 100 mbps. It pioneered broadband DSL (digital subscriber line) services and is the only provider with a fiber-optic network running Gigabit Ethernet. ETPI also operates the Manila Internet Exchange (MIX), one of the largest local Internet peering point in the Philippines.