PLDT expands ultrafast broadband coverage in 2017

PLDT, Inc. continues to ramp up its fixed broadband connection, with four million homes passed as of end-2017.

In a statement, the telecommunications giant said its “fiber-fast Internet connection” reached four million homes passed nationwide, 43% higher than end-2016.

PLDT also doubled the capacity of its fixed broadband network to over one million ports at the end of 2017. A significant increase in the number of ports or actual broadband lines were seen in Cavite, Pampanga, Bataan, Zambales, Cebu, Pangasinan, Bulacan, Tarlac, Nueva Ecija, and Laguna.

PLDT has been installing fiber- to- the- home ( FTTH) facilities and the “fibrization” of its current copper- based network through hybrid technologies used in Germany and South Korea.

The company says that FTTH can provide speeds of up to 1 Gbps ( gigabit per second), while hybrid fiber can provide data speeds ranging from 100 Mbps (megabits per second) up to 500 Mbps ( for G. fast) over copper lines.

“By 2019, virtually all of PLDT’s 1.2 million copper-based DSL subscribers will enjoy fiberfast Internet. PLDT will further expand its ultrafast broadband coverage to 6 million homes passed by 2020, reaching more areas of the country,” PLDT Chairman, President and CEO Manuel V. Pangilinan said in a statement.

PLDT earlier said it will double its fiber and hybrid fiber broadband capacity to over 2.2 million ports, with about 650,000 of the additional ports for fiber and another 550,000 for hybrid fiber broadband.

The telco is targeting to provide fiber-fast Internet to nearly all of its 1.2 million copper-based digital subscriber line ( DSL) subscribers by 2019. PLDT eyes to have as much as 10 million homes passed with FTTH within 2021-2025.

PLDT said its total fiber footprint grew 45% to over 174,000 kilometers ( kms.) by end- 2017, from about 120,000 kilometers in end-2015. For this year, it will add another 33,000 kms. of fiber cables and raise the total to nearly 210,000 kms. by yearend.

It also targets to increase the total capacity of its international fiber network by 80% to 8.92 Terabytes per second (TBps) by end-2019, of which 8.11 Tbps will terminate in the Philippines, to be boosted by its investment of P7 billion in the new TransPacific undersea cable system called Jupiter.

PLDT, Inc. is set to expand its fixed and mobile networks as part of its five-year P260-billion capital expenditure (capex) program.

It has earmarked a capex above P50 billion for this year.

Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., has a stake in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls. —