PLDT to invest over $30 million in ‘Big Data’ services

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) said it will invest over P1.34 billion ($30 million) in the next 3 years to ramp up its “Big Data” solutions, which allow local enterprises to analyze openly available information for important business decisions.

“We already put in P1.34 billion ($30 million) since three years ago. We’re gonna invest more than that over the next three years,” PLDT Chief Strategy Officer Winston Damarillo said in a media briefing in Makati City Wednesday.

In its launching earlier, PLDT executive vice-president Ernesto Alberto said his company’s Big Data solutions allow enterprises “to analyze openly available data and gain insights that drive predictive and data-driven decision-making in their businesses.”

PLDT said its infrastructure is designed to handle Big Data processes generated by more than 75 million wired and wireless subscribers.

“PLDT’s world-class infrastructure is capable of handling the most demanding data analytics tasks,” ePLDT Group Chief Officer Nerissa Ramos said during the briefing.

This announcement follows PLDT’s recent membership in the Open Data Platform (ODP), a worldwide consortium of Big Data global technology leaders that aims to standardize the core platform and accelerate data delivery across markets. 

PLDT claimed that it is the only Association of the Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) company in the ODP, which has a membership of multinational companies such as General Electric Company, Hortonworks, International Business Machines Corporation, Infosys Technologies Limited, among others.

Over the last 10 years, the telco group has invested around P30 billion ($671.22 million) annually to enhance its networks, PLDT Chairman Manuel Pangilinan said in his speech yesterday. This include internet, fiber optic networks, high bandwidth ethernet nodes, 3G and LTE-enabled cell sites, cable landing stations, international cable systems, and international points of presence.

PLDT also invested a total of more than P26 billion ($582.09 million) for digital infrastructure, platforms, and capabilities. -Rappler.com

$1=P44.69