Philippine telco aims to grow broadband markets

31.07.2006
Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) has launched its 10-gigabit fiber optic link to Baguio City, part of around US$300 million nationwide network roll-out that seeks to address emerging broadband markets.

PLDT's nationwide Digital Fiber Optic Network (DFON) was launched in 1998 and the result of a $197 million investment by the telecom conglomerate. Since then, PLDT has spent around $90 million in expanding into an IP-based network that can transmit voice, video and data services.

The DFON link to Baguio City, located in the northern province of Benguet, runs on two separate fiber optic cables with a 10 gigabit per second transmission bandwidth that can carry more than 120,000 voice calls, the company said.

'This is really not meant to meet current demand but to position Baguio City to invite more investments,' said Eric Alberto, PLDT Corporate Business Group head, in a news briefing held here Friday.

PLDT expects most of these investments to come from the lucrative business process outsourcing (BPO) business.

ClientLogic, the first call center to locate in Baguio City last year and a PLDT client, is expanding its current 850-seats capacity to 700 more and bring its total workforce to more than 2,000 agents, PLDT said.