PALAWAN, Philippines, April 3, 2014 – Palawan’s business communities are anticipating a surge in its local industries, particularly in the region’s tourism sector, as leading telecoms company PLDT sets operations for the P 1B Domestic Fiber Optic Network (DFON) in Palawan that will link the island to the most extensive fiber optic network in the country.

Through the 620-kilometer inland and submarine fiber optic cable running from La Paz, Ilo-Ilo to Taytay, Palawan to Puerto Princesa, Palawan’s growing ICT needs shall see support especially in the region’s increasing demand for voice and data traffic in both mobile and fixed services.

With Puerto Princesa expecting to benefit most in the initial roll out of the Palawan DFON project, the enhanced ICT infrastructure is seen to help boost the city’s tourism efforts catering to the influx of foreign and local tourists annually going in and out of the island’s top vacation spots. Palawan corners around a quarter of total tourist arrivals in the Philippines with an estimated 800,000 visitors last year.

“We in PLDT are excited for Palawan in this newest milestone for the company. Our fiber optic network roll out in Puerto Princesa is only the first in our efforts for the region’s local businesses to benefit from faster and stronger connectivity that we have continuously invested on,” said PLDT EVP and Head of Enterprise, International, and Carrier Business Eric R. Alberto.

With Palawan’s Puerto Princesa City home to some of the country’s renowned tourist destinations, the city’s flourishing tourism industry provide significant contributions to the region’s local economy generating jobs for local residents as well as improving the country’s image as a paradise destination among foreign travelers including one of the new Seven Wonders of the World, the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park or the Underground River.

“We are happy and are looking forward to this partnership with PLDT in helping nurture and develop the local ICT facilities of Puerto Princesa City to support further economic growth of the city,” said Puerto Princesa Mayor Lucil “Cecil” Bayron.

Palawan has seen major developments that have help boost local businesses in the area. As Palawan links to PLDT’s 7-loop DFON across main points in the country, the region’s businesses would benefit from the advantages of hi-speed fiber optic technology with a 40 Gigabit bandwidth capacity that is expandable to 100 Gigabit. This enables a faster roll out in service delivery within a single platform for businesses to support increasing demand for greater bandwidth of enterprises and small-and-medium entrepreneurs in the area.

“Palawan has been a leader in tourism not only in the local sphere but also in the international scene and PLDT is here to enable these thriving businesses advance to the next level,” said PLDT ALPHA Enterprise Head and FVP Jovy Hernandez.

“With everything today being heavily driven by technology, businesses need to keep pace, especially with the fast approaching ASEAN integration. We need to be the key enabler in transforming small and medium enterprises to revolutionize their business and become globally competitive by providing future-ready solutions enabled by world class infrastructure,” PLDT SME Nation Head and FVP Kat Luna-Abelarde concluded.

PLDT has the most expansive and most resilient fiber optic network in the country with over 78,000 kilometers of fiber architecture as of end-2013, with the DFON alone capable of carrying up to 4.78 TBPS of data.