MANILA, Philippines, December 18, 2007 – Fourteen (14) members of the Pacific Partners, an alliance of major carriers in the Asia-Pacific region, have signed a memorandum of agreement (MOU) to ensure quick restoration of services in their networks during major cable system failures.

These carriers include  AT&T of the US, China Telecom, CAT Telecom of Thailand, Chunghwa Telecom of Taiwan, KDDI of Japan, Korea Telecom, PLDT of the Philippines,  INDOSAT of Indonesia,  REACH of Hong Kong and Australia, Singapore Telecom,  Telecom New Zealand, Telekom Malaysia,  VNPT of Vietnam and VSNL International  of India and Canada.

In the aftermath of the December 2006 Taiwan earthquake that damaged nine (9) international submarine cable systems, existing restoration plans proved insufficient, causing major difficulties in the Asia-Pacific region.

Top officials of the Pacific Partners met in early 2007 to discuss the impact of the Taiwan earthquake and measures to avert a similar crisis. They agreed to pursue a strategic cooperation initiative that would pool all available resources at their disposal (i.e., manpower, talent and facilities) to deal with multiple cable failures that may occur in the future.

Under the terms of this MOU, the Partners will develop Disaster Recovery Principles and Mechanism (DRP/M) to ensure each party's quick return to business-as-usual operation. It is expected that this will minimize the impact of international cable failures on the consumer and business customers of the Partners.

A Committee chaired by PLDT Carrier Marketing Management Head Genaro C. Sanchez was created in early 2007 to undertake this task. Its work is expected to be completed by year-end and the DRP/M is expected to be ready for implementation by early 2008.