MANILA, Philippines – Have you tried getting a Converge broadband connection in the past months? There’s a chance you may not have been able to secure a line as the company hit a limit.

Now though, you may have a chance as the company confirms that they’re ready to accommodate more subscribers thanks to the rollout of a new 400 gigabits-per-second (Gbps) backbone in May. The backbone allows Converge to hook up more subscribers and at the same time, ease congestion, which may have somewhat caused slight slowdown in some areas in recent months.

Emil Baniqued, the head of network operations, confirmed these developments to Rappler.

“Yes, with the 400Gbps backbone rollout, Converge ICT can accommodate more users without congestion,” Baniqued explained. Along with the boost in capacity, Baniqued also said they also performed upgrades that should lessen congestion.

“We have already upgraded the gateways which are correlated to the upgrade we did to the backbone,” the executive added.

In a press release, the firm’s chief technology officer, Ronald Brusola, went on to explain what the upgrades mean.

“This network upgrade will allow us to continuously boost or enhance our domestic service delivery. In preparation for the exponential expansion that is currently being rolled out, this will be able to help us in keeping up with the growing demand of subscribers,” Brusola said.

Essentially, the new backbone enhances capacity, resulting in the network’s ability to accommodate more customers and traffic, and to have that extra leeway before things become slow and congested. Of course, in a few years or so, maybe less, that capacity will be taken up, requiring a new set of upgrades. The point is that if you’ve been considering the service, now may be a good time to secure a line.

Last year, the company revealed its plans for future expansion, saying that phases of the Visayas and Mindanao rollout will be done by mid-2019. When asked about those regions, the company did not appear to be ready to announce or launch services there just yet, saying they’ll keep us posted should they have “firm plans to expand to other regions in Visayas and Mindanao.”

According to Baniqued, “expanding our coverage has always been one of our goals.”

Converge launched in Pampanga in 2015 before expanding to Metro Manila in 2017, gaining attention for their competitive broadband packages. Perhaps with the new rollout, Converge will be able to meet the threshold for internet speed-testing companies so consumers can see where their service rank vis-a-vis the giants such as PLDT and Globe. – Rappler.com