MANILA, Philippines, March 11, 2013 - Leading telecoms carrier PLDT is rolling out this year over 5,000 kilometers of new fiber optic cable (FOC) facilities at the cost of about P2.5 billion.  This would extend the total reach of its fiber network to almost 60,000 kilometers, about five times more than the competition.

“With this expansion program, we are bolstering our already formidable fiber advantage. Fiber is key to having the capacity to deliver next-generation, large-bandwidth data services,” said PLDT and Smart President and CEO Napoleon L. Nazareno.

“For our customers, this means that in more places in the country they will be able to enjoy superior high-speed internet service using their PCs, laptops, tablets or smartphones  -- whether at home, office or on the go.  Your devices can be only as good as your network,” he added.

The fiber expansion program for 2013 will cover the domestic fiber optic network (DFON) used for long haul applications, fiber-to-the home (FTTH), fiber-in the-loop (FITL) and other inter-office fibering projects. The FTTH project, for example, will make PLDT’s high-speed internet services available to about two million homes in different parts of the country such as Metro Manila, the regions of Central Luzon, Southern Tagalog, and, the provinces of Panay, Negros Occidental, Cebu, and Davao.

Moreover, the additional FOC links include submarine cables that will boost the data connectivity of the islands of Palawan, Bohol and Panay where the demand for resilient data services is rising due to the booming tourism and business process outsourcing industries in these areas.
“Our DFON expansion program will directly support the economic development programs of these major islands,” Nazareno said.

At the same time, PLDT’s wireless subsidiary Smart Communications will expand the coverage of its Long Term Evolution (LTE) fourth-generation mobile data network which at this point already has about 1,000 cell sites, or ten times the coverage of the competition. This will also provide the connectivity to raise Smart’s 3G coverage from about 70% to about 85-90% of the total network.

The DFON program is part of PLDT’s P29 billion capital expenditure budget for 2013. The capex program also provides for the installation and firing up of more Smart LTE cell sites and the expansion of the 3G coverage of Smart and Sun Cellular.  PLDT is also building content delivery platforms to handle IP-based multi-media content.
“Even as we maximize our legacy businesses, we are focused on building our data and multi-media services.  These are the businesses of the future,” Nazareno said.

He pointed to the growing popularity of web-enabled smart phones and rising demand for media-rich data services on both fixed and mobile devices.

Aside from strengthening its domestic data network, PLDT continues to beef up its international data facilities as well.

“PLDT has the country’s fastest and most reliable connections to the rest of the world through our four international cable landing stations and partnerships with 12 of the biggest telco operators in the world,” said Rolando Pena, PLDT head of networks.

Last month, PLDT announced the completion of the Hong Kong FOC extension project as part of the 7,800-km undersea Asia Submarine-cable Express system that links the Philippines to Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, and Hong Kong through PLDT’s new landing station in Daet, Camarines Norte.

Starting in 2013, PLDT will upgrade the capacity of its different cable systems up to 40 gbps and then to 100 gbps.  PLDT has also doubled its internet gateway capacity to better handle internet traffic going to and coming from the Philippines.

“This will benefit both consumers who are using Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Google, as well as enterprises such as outsourcing companies that rely on data communications to run their operations,” Pena said.