PLDT announces completion of USD63.6m fibre expansion

Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) has completed a PHP2.8 billion (USD63.6 million) expansion of its fibre-optic network. The project began in January this year and entailed the deployment of 1,300km of new terrestrial and submarine fibre links between the Bicol region, to the south of Manila, and the central and southern regions of Visayas and Mindanao. As a result of the expansion, PLDT has extended coverage to ten provinces, including Iloilo and Negros Oriental, providing potential expansion areas for the nation’s business process outsourcing (BPO) industry. PLDT vice-president and head of marketing, Eric Alberto, is quoted as saying that following the latest initiative, the telco’s fibre-optic network now spans 10,050km connecting 68 nodes, with a total bandwidth capacity of 1.56Tbps.