Slow progress of telco firms in removing dangling wires

AFTER receiving a May 1 deadline in October last year, Cebu City-based utility firms have a long way to go in removing all their dangling wires in the city.

Engr. Jose Marie Poblete, who heads City Hall’s Technical Infrastructure Committee (TIC), said the utility firms have completed 11 percent of their task to remove redundant poles in the city’s Central Business District (CBD) since last year.

In their latest progress report as of February 29, the five firms said they removed 95 out of the 865 redundant poles they have identified within the CBD.

“It’s not something requested out of whim. It’s already a law. They should be thankful that they’ve been extended and they haven’t been penalized,” Poblete told reporters.

Based on the report, the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) removed 80 of their 324 identified poles or about 25 percent complete.

Telecphil also removed three out of their 15 poles or 20 percent followed by the Visayan Electric Co. (Veco) with 10 out of 208 redundant poles removed or 4.8 percent.

Globe only removed two of 308 poles or only 0.65 percent while TELOF hasn’t removed a single one of its 10 redundant poles.

After the series of accidents involving dangling wires and leaning posts in the city last year, Mayor Michael Rama called on the utility firms and telcos to bundle all spaghetti wires in the city by October last year.

But they failed to do so, prompting the mayor to extend the deadline to May 1 this year.

They were also asked to submit an accomplishment report by late February.