Telco to strengthen foothold in Cebu market

Catherine Muynila, Eastern Communications marketing division head (center), together with sales and marketing officials of the company, share Eastern Communications’ plans and thrusts in an interview on Tuesday at the Shangri-La’s Mactan Resort in Cebu.

TOGETHER with the expansion of the business process outsourcing (BPO) and manufacturing sectors in Cebu, the need for support infrastructure also grows.

Eastern Communications, one of the country’s leading telecommunications firms, sees this opportunity as they are geared to also strengthen their presence in the province.

“We are expanding in major IT parks and the MEPZ area so that we can expand our customers reach. We really want to maintain our standing with out enterprise customers. The market in Cebu is tremendously growing,” said Catherine Muynila, marketing division head of Eastern Communications in an interview on Tuesday.

The company is spending P900 million as parts of its network modernization program for 2018.

The program includes the migration of their services to a more stable integrated voice service platform and network improvements for better resiliency and service availability; expansions in its transmission system, access network, and fiber network, refreshing its IP network and the widening of its international network.

Muynila said a portion of this investment will go to Cebu.

Aside from Metro Cebu and Metro Manila, Eastern Communications is also present in areas like Baguio, Cavite, Laguna, and Batangas.

In Cebu, Eastern Communications has close to 100 clients that are mostly BPOs firms, manufacturing firms, and locators in the Cebu I.T. Park and the Mactan Export Processing Zone (MEPZ), as well as some small and medium enterprises.

While they offer a wide array of products and services, Muynila said their clients in Cebu are mostly availing only of their internet and data services, something they want to improve on.

“That’s the reason we are here now. We want to engage our customers on our new offerings. We are doing a workshop with our clients this week. And maybe by November, we will do an appreciation night,” she said.

Aside from high speed global data services, the firm also offers managed software defined-wide area networks, managed WiFi mesh, cybersecurity through DDOS protection, and cloud services among others.

Microsoft has ranked the Philippines as the 8th most vulnerable country to malware in Asia-Pacific while the Federal Bureau of Investigation identified the country as the 10th most attacked one in the internet globally, making cybersecurity a major concern for Philippine businesses.

While improving relations with their existing clients, Muynila said they are also exploring new markets to reach, including schools.

She said schools need to be aware of new products, trends and technologies in the market in order also to prepare them to become capable addition to the workforce and support different industries.