MANILA, Philippines, November 19, 2015 – Leading telecommunications and digital services provider PLDT has completed the multi-year P6 billion transformation of its landline network into a purely Internet Protocol (IP)-based Next Generation Network (NGN) system that further enhances the delivery of its various services to its customers.

Covering the PLDT Group’s 271 offices in 48 provinces nationwide, the network transformation program entailed the migration of a total of 782 switches and nearly 1.3 million lines.

“This is an achievement for PLDT because it is one of the very few carriers in the world that has completely transformed its legacy network,” said PLDT President and CEO Napoleon L. Nazareno.

The legacy network is a public switched telephone network (PSTN) composed of electronic switches that have now been decommissioned to give way to the digitally enabled NGN.

“With an IP-based system, we can improve customer experience in terms of better service quality and reliability. It also enhances our capacity to offer more relevant and customized services to our subscribers,” Nazareno pointed out.

“With the ceremonial shutdown of our legacy landline network, we are now going full throttle in making our various networks fully digital. We are rolling out our fiber network and strengthening our mobile network. We are building the digital infrastructure that will power the future growth of our companies and our country,” he said.

PLDT has the most expansive and resilient fiber transmission and distribution network, spanning over 100,000 kilometers, that serves both fixed and cellular networks.

“The NGN system will significantly improve customer experience as it ensures a more reliable and robust service,” PLDT Fixed Network Migration Head Angelito Lorena, Jr. explained. “It is an all IP-based network and is therefore capable of delivering new digital services, such as high-quality voice, data, and multimedia services to customers.

“We have always considered our customers during the migration process, constantly communicating with them and making sure that PLDT’s services are not disrupted during the cut-over from the electronic legacy switch to NGN,” Lorena said. “Learning from our previous experiences, we were able to reduce trouble indices from around 10% to as low as 0.49% as we completed the project.”