Leading telecoms and multimedia service provider PLDT has completed a P600-million fiber optic cable project that provides Bohol with high bandwidth connectivity that is expected to boost the economy of the Central Visayan province which is still recovering from a major earthquake last year.
The new fiber link also strengthens the resiliency of PLDT domestic fiber optic network (DFON) by establishing a third link to the island of Mindanao via Bohol and Misamis Oriental province.
“This new fiber link will boost Bohol’s thriving tourism industry and enable the province to attract more business process outsourcing companies to set up shop there,” said PLDT President and CEO Napoleon L. Nazareno.
“Moreover, Boholanos will be able to enjoy improved internet services at their homes, schools and offices,” he added.
PLDT Technology Group Head Rolando Pena said that the Bohol DFON is equipped with up to 50G capacity to support the increasing demand for greater bandwidth in both fixed and wireless services by corporate customers.
He added the new fiber optic cable facilities also allow PLDT to provide fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) services and support the operations of its wireless subsidiaries Smart Communications and Sun Cellular, particularly in providing expanded HSPA and LTE coverage to their subscribers in the area.
“With our DFON in place, businesses in Bohol can now take advantage of a communications infrastructure that has greater capacity which can be quickly expanded and is also more resilient,” Pena said.
Pena added the Bohol fiber optic cable project will also support the ICT requirements of the international airport that will be built in Panglao Island.
Consisting of 245 kilometers of inland and submarine fiber optic cables (FOC), the Bohol fiber project connects the island in the north from Loon to Mactan in Cebu and in the south from Garcia Hernandez to Kinoguitan in Misamis Oriental.
By providing a third link to Mindanao, the Bohol fiber link project bolsters the PLDT’s network resiliency, making it less susceptible to outages from fiber cuts caused by natural disasters like earthquakes or heavy storms. The PLDT Group’s fiber optic network is the most extensive in the country, with more than 85,000 kilometers of inland and submarine cables as of end-March, more than four times of competition.
“Fiber is the foundation of all digital communications infrastructure. If you don’t have enough of it, you cannot offer extensive, resilient high-speed broadband serviced,” Pena said.
“We will continue to expand our internet infrastructure to support the development efforts of different parts of the country. This will spread more equitably the benefits of the strong growth of the country’s economy,” Nazareno said.