PLDT completes ‘Yolanda Project’

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Long Distance Company (PLDT) announced that it already completed its “Yolanda Project,” or the installation of underground fiber optic cables in areas hit by supertyphoon Yolanda (Haiyan).

The project amounted to P400 million ($8.89 million*).

The PLDT Yolanda Project aims to help the Visayas region recover from the devastating impact of one of the strongest tropical cyclones ever recorded, PLDT president and chief executive officer Napoleon Nazareno said. (READ: TIMELINE: The good and bad news #AfterYolanda)

“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,” Nazareno said.

The project covers Leyte, Samar, Cebu, and Panay Island. It would also strengthen the resiliency of its network in the affected provinces, Rolando Peña, head of the PLDT Technology Group, said.

The recently completed two fiber-in-the-loop (FITL) areas would replace the aerial cables damaged by the supertyphoon and serve both fixed line and wireless customers, Peña added.

“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,” Peña pointed out.

PLDT’s total fiber assets have already exceeded 90,000 kilometers (kms).

Earlier this 2014, PLDT fortified its 600-km fiber optic cable network in its Northern Luzon in a bid to provide multimedia services to an estimated 11 million subscribers of PLDT mobile subsidiaries Smart and Sun Cellular and about 450,000 customers of PLDT HOME.

In March, PLDT’s domestic fiber optic network (DFON) linked Palawan province to the world through undersea and inland cable links running from Puerto Princesa to Taytay in Palawan and San Jose de Buenavista to La Paz, Iloilo City.

PLDT has also completed the installation of over 150 kms of submarine and inland fiber optic cables linking Bohol with the major urban centers in the Visayas and Mindanao.

PLDT also eyes to spend between P30 billion ($667.08 million) and P35 billion ($778.13 million) for its capital expenditures in 2015 to further expand its fiber network. – Rappler.com

($1 = P44.98)