MANILA, Philippines, October 31, 2014 – Leading telecoms and multimedia provider PLDT has undertaken a P400-million program to install underground fiber optic cables in the areas hit by supertyphoon Yolanda in the Visayas region to strengthen the resiliency of its network and help revive the economies of the affected provinces.
PLDT has completed two fiber-in-the-loop (FITL) areas under the so-called PLDT Yolanda Project that will serve both fixed line and wireless customers. These would replace the aerial cables in the areas damaged by the typhoon in November last year.
“We have started fortifying our domestic fiber optic network (DFON) in the Visayas, beginning with the areas that were hit by Typhoon Yolanda,” said PLDT Technology Group Head Rolando Peña.
He stressed that, “underground cables are less vulnerable to fiber cuts due to typhoons and landslides. This helps makes our network more resilient and less susceptible to disruptions."
The PLDT Yolanda Project covers Leyte, Samar, Cebu and Panay Island.
PLDT President and CEO Napoleon Nazareno said that this is PLDT’s way of helping the Visayas region recover from the devastating impact of supertyphoon Yolanda which was one of the strongest cyclones ever recorded in the world.
“With the Yolanda Project, we are re-connecting the affected provinces to the rest of the Philippines and the world with high-quality voice, data, and multimedia services in a much more robust and sustainable manner,” said Nazareno.
PLDT’s total fiber assets have already exceeded 90,000 kilometers, making it the most extensive fiber network in the country.
Earlier this year, PLDT fortified its 600-kilometer fiber optic cable network in its Northern Luzon, strengthening its capacity to provide multimedia services to an estimated 11 million subscribers of PLDT mobile subsidiaries Smart and Sun Cellular and around 450,000 customers of PLDT HOME.
In March, PLDT’s DFON linked Palawan province to the world to through undersea and inland cable links that run from Puerto Princesa to Taytay in Palawan and San Jose de Buenavista to La Paz, Iloilo City. The enhanced fiber links support the increasing demand for reliable telecoms and data services in one of the most popular tourist destinations in the country.
PLDT has also completed the installation of over 150 kilometers of submarine and inland fiber optic cables that link the island of Bohol with the major urban centers in the Visayas and Mindanao areas. This is supporting the development of the tourism and BPO industries in Bohol with reliable telecommunications, data and multimedia services.
