Telecommunications giant Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) is beefing up its domestic fiber optic network (DFON) to benefit the local business process outsourcing (BPO) and offshoring and outsourcing (O&O) industries with its recent P1.3 billion capacity expansion upgrade to 100G technology.
“This is the largest network capacity of any provider in the country. And the ongoing capacity expansion will further strengthen PLDT’s leadership while improving our services within the domestic network,” PLDT and Smart president Napoleon Nazareno said.
PLDT’s deployment of 100G technology in its domestic network puts the Philippines in a leadership position in Asia-Pacific, among only a handful of other countries in the region such as Japan, South Korea, Australia and Singapore.
PLDT EVP and head of enterprise and international and carrier business Eric Alberto pointed out that PLDT is continuously upgrading its network to the future specs of the country’s leading industries like the BPO and O&O industries to further provide world-grade ICT capacity.
“PLDT’s accelerated core network modernization expansion in the BPO and O&O industries, particularly in the “Next Wave” cities in the country such as Iloilo, Batangas and Baguio City, will allow such industries the capacity and resiliency that would allow them to level up and compete in the global market,” Alberto said.
“PLDT’s robust network of NGN and fiber has continued to expand at the level of quality, capacity, diversity, redundancy, and other specifications that will cater to the growing demand for reliable ICT connectivity of our country’s enterprises,” he added.
With the recent revision of the Department of Science and Technology’s IT-BPO industry outlook to $27.4 billion in revenue target by 2016, PLDT is set to support this forecast in its network capacity expansion to further accelerate growth in these industries.
“Our upgrade to advanced optical technologies will add significant bandwidth scalability, and intelligence to PLDT’s current network infrastructure allowing us to offer 40G and a100G-based services to meet forecasted demand in high-speed connectivity,” Nazareno said.
“PLDT will continue to invest in our infrastructure, our people, and in nation-building to ensure that the country’s optimistic BPO and O&O industries will retain its status as the most preferred outsourcing destination in the world,” he said.
PLDT has tapped Nasdaq-listed Ciena Corp., the network specialist, to upgrade its core network to 100G technology with Optical Transport Network switching solution. Expected to be completed in November this year, PLDT will be the first in the Philippines to deploy such technology.