DOMINANT carrier Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) is spending P544 million to expand the capacity of its 90,000-kilometer domestic fiber optic network (DFON), a venture that will be completed by the first quarter of 2015.
The additional 520 gigabits per second will effectively raise the total capacity of the firm’s transmission network by 13 percent to 4.6 terabits per second.
PLDT President Napoleon L. Nazareno said his firm decided to increase the capacity of its fiber-optic network in anticipation of the rapidly rising data usage of the PLDT Group’s subscriber base and the need to strengthen the resiliency of its extensive fiber network.
It was the 18th expansion venture since the transmission network was launched in 1997.
“We are undertaking this project because our broadband subscriber base is growing in all market segments: among individual or home customers in both fixed and mobile businesses, as well as in the large and small enterprises segments. Moreover, the bandwidth requirement per customer is rising as more services and applications become available through the Internet,” he said.
He said the group is also expanding the footprint of its domestic broadband coverage to service more parts of the country.
“We are adding capacity to maintain the resiliency of our growing network,” he said.
“Our investment program enables us to maintain the clear superiority of our network infrastructure which is the most extensive and robust in the country,” he said.
Last week, PLDT’s wireless subsidiaries launched a special offer to provide free mobile Internet for the 66 million prepaid subscribers of Smart, Talk ’N Text and Sun Cellular. Initially available up to November 30, this unprecedented move is expected to boost mobile data usage among prepaid subscribers who currently do not use their mobile handsets to go online.
Part of the PLDT Group’s P32-billion capital expenditure program for this year, this expansion project involves the installation of higher-capacity equipment that will provide increased bandwidth and speeds for PLDT DSL subscribers, particularly in Metro Manila, the Visayas and northern Mindanao regions.
It will also supply added data capacity for mobile subscribers of Smart, Talk ’N Text and Sun Cellular, particularly in the Visayas and Mindanao regions.
The project will also boost bandwidth for corporate leased lines and other enterprise requirements in the islands of Luzon and the Visayas.
“With demand for high-speed Internet services rising, we are making timely investments in order to stay ahead of these anticipated trends,” said Roland G. Peña, who heads the group’s technology division.
This capacity-expansion project came on the heels of the extension of the PLDT DFON’s coverage to the islands of Palawan and Bohol, expected to boost the outsourcing and tourism industries in these areas.
These moves are in support of industry initiatives to locate more outsourcing companies in different parts of the country.
It also follows Smart’s move to expand the footprint of the group’s high-speed wireless broadband network by adding another 1,400 4G LTE cell sites by the end of this year. This includes FDD-LTE sites for Smart’s mobile phone service and TD-LTE sites for PLDT Home’s wireless broadband service. The widespread deployment of LTE facilities will bring high-speed broadband to more mobile and home users in different parts of the country.
“We’ve gotten a very encouraging response to our free Internet offer. This plus the other initiatives are all expected to boost data usage across both fixed and mobile platforms in many different parts of the country. This new capacity-expansion program will enable us to provide quality data services to the as the demand for these grows,” Pena said.
The firm’s net income stood at P20 billion in the first semester this year, a 2-percent increase from the P19.7 billion it booked in the same period in 2013.
In the same comparative periods, consolidated service revenues grew 3 percent to P85.43 billion, while expenses rose by a faster 6 percent to P62.52 billion from P59.11 billion.