by PLDT Media Services | Nov 29, 2009
MANILA, Philippines, November 29, 2007 – Subic Telecommunications Company Inc. (SubicTel), a subsidiary of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., has completed its state-of-the-art fiber optic connection, paving the way for new investors in Subic Bay Freeport Zone.
The project was completed through PLDT’s P210 million investment to expand its nationwide Domestic Fiber Optic Network (DFON) to Subic with 286 kilometers of fiber optic cables. SubicTel is now part of this unparalleled network that can support new investments in the Freeport Zone.
This DFON expansion has also allowed SubicTel to upgrade and enhance the DSL network in the Freeport Zone, thus providing more reliable high-speed broadband services.
SubicTel General Manager Henry Abes said this is a welcome development for the locators in the area especially because of their critical communications needs.
“We committed to complete the project by December, and we are happy to report that we are a little early. We will now be able to address the needs of existing and potential customers much more quickly,” he said.
The first leg of the new fiber optic connection was completed when the operations center of Korean shipbuilding firm Hanjin, which is investing $1.7 billion for its shipyard, was connected from Redondo Peninsula in Subic to SubicTel in the Freeport Zone in late July.
The Hanjin fiber optic link spans about 25 kilometers, passing through Subic town and Olongapo City in Zambales province. Hanjin is now directly connected to its headquarters in Korea by way of PLDT's international link.
With the activation of the P210-million project by next month, locators in the Freeport Zone will benefit from PLDT's robust nationwide DFON backbone for increased and very much improved data connectivity. The DFON is the country’s most extensive and robust fiber optic network that has been a key enabler of PLDT’s cutting-edge services for retail and corporate customers.
Now that SubicTel is connected to DFON, it will now be able to provide better quality of service and new services such as bundled voice, data and video.
“With this fiber optic connection, SubicTel can now offer services that are quicker to deploy and more efficient in terms of network usage,” added Abes.
The network expansion project spans 286 kilometers of fiber optic cables that form several redundant loops covering Angeles, Clark, Porac, San Fernando, Guagua, Lubao and Floridablanca in Pampanga, and Dinalupihan in Bataan, Subic Town in Zambales, and Subic Bay Freeport Zone in Olongapo.
The fiber backhaul connectivity has multi-loops to provide the redundancy in case of fiber breaks. IP Radio facilities for additional redundancy have also been installed.
“Redundancy is very important for locators in Subic. Avoiding costly service disruptions is foremost in their minds,” said Abes. “With the completion of this project, Subic Bay Freeport Zone will now become a much more attractive haven for investors in ICT and BPOs.”
Earlier this year, SubicTel connected another 45-Mbps bandwidth pipe from PLDT, doubling last year’s bandwidth capacity. With the installation of the fiber optic network, this will further increase bandwidth capacity to 2.5 Gigabits per second (Gbps) or STM-16 to meet increasing demands of customers.
The 2.5 Gbps bandwidth is enough for 30,240 simultaneous voice calls.
