Telcos, Veco start bundling spaghetti wires

Anton Mari Perdices of VECO (center) announces before media together with telecom companies and other utilities of their cleanup drive against sphagety wire along Gen Maxilom. Others in photo are from left Richard Trasmonte, of Eastern Telecom; Rene Lescano of. PLDT/SMART; Nino Sarabosing of Skycable and Edlin Jose Delis Reyes of Globe.(CDN PHOTO/TONEE DESPOJO)

Utility firms have teamed up in an effort to address the issue on dangling and spaghetti wires in major thoroughfares in Cebu City.

The new initiative is a “fresh look and fresh attempt” at solving the long-standing problem which has been repeatedly raised by officials in the past years especially after accidents occurred involving vehicles snagging these dangling wires, said Visayan Electric Company (Veco) Chief Operating Officer Anton Mari Perdices.

“Several weeks ago, we met with the mayor and he brought up the concern on safety of the city in terms of dangling cables. He asked if Veco could take the lead in rounding everybody up,” he said in a press conference yesterday.

This was why Perdices said he immediately talked to the other telecommunications companies on what they could do to address the mayor’s concerns.

Those who got onboard include PLDT, Smart, Globe, SkyCable and Eastern Telecom Phils.

The group immediately started bundling wires along Gen. Maxilom Ave. from the Fuente Osmeña rotunda to Fooda, spanning around 1.5 kilometers.

By the end of this month, Perdices said they will be meeting Mayor Tomas Osmeña again to show their progress and get a go signal from him to implement the same in other major thoroughfares in the city like Gorordo Avenue, Escario Street, Banilad–Talamban Road and A.S. Fortuna.

He explained that unlike their previous bundling activities, they are now using u-clamps which make it easier to put in additional wires if there are new connections.

Aside from Perdices, also present during yesterday’s press conference were PLDT/Smart customer service operations zone head Rene Lescano, Globe Regional Manager for cable engineering Edlin Jose delos Reyes, SkyCable General Manager Niño Rey Sarabosing, and Eastern Telecom Phils. Technical Manager Richard Trasmonte.

Delos Reyes said the process could take time since they would have to first assess the area where they will do the bundling and then take out the dormant or dead wires so that the active wires are the only ones that will be bundled.

Representatives from all concerned firms should also be present since they would have to identify their own wires.

Once Mayor Osmeña gives them a go signal, the group said they will meet again to come up with a plan in doing the bundling of the wires in other parts of the city.

Sought for comment, Mayor Osmeña said he is just waiting for the group to present their plan to him. But he said he also has his own suggestion.

“My plan is this, we will color code all the wires because we don’t know who is responsible for those wires that are dangling. Veco will be green, SkyCable will be blue, PLDT will be blue and yellow, whatever,” he told reporters yesterday.

He said City Hall is also planning on passing an ordinance to make the color-coding of wires mandatory for utility firms.