PLDT consortium completes new Asia-Pacific submarine cable system

MANILA - Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. on Tuesday said a multi-million dollar submarine cable system in the Asia Pacific has been completed, raising the resiliency of its overseas links and doubling its international bandwidth capacity.

Napoleon Nazareno, PLDT president and chief executive, said the $400-million Asia Submarine-Cable Express is the largest-capacity international submarine cable system ever to land in the Philippines.

A project undertaken by PLDT in partnership with leading telecom firms in Asia, the 7,200-kilometer undersea cable network uses 40 Gigabits per second technology that is upgradeable to 100 Gbps, with a minimum design capacity of 15 Terabits.

PLDT chipped in $55 million for the cable project.

The ASE system initially links Japan, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore through a fiber optic cable. In the next phases, China, Vietnam and Indonesia would be connected.

The ASE can also be connected to other major cable systems in Europe, the Middle East, other parts of Asia, and the US.

Among the members of the ASE consortium are NTTCom of Japan, StarHub of Singapore, and TM of Malaysia. The submarine cable system was supplied by NEC Corp. and Fujitsu Ltd.

Nazareno said the project will enhance the country’s global competitiveness, attracting investments for business process outsourcing industries and other ventures at a time when investor interest in the Philippines is on the upswing.

Nazareno said PLDT and its group of companies, including Smart and Sun Cellular, can now serve the increasing international bandwidth requirements of their combined customer base.

“We can also expand our broadband services with new bandwidth-heavy applications requiring international access such as IP-based data, external video content and other external multimedia services,” he added.

Ernesto R. Alberto, PLDT executive vice president and head of Enterprise and International and Carrier Business said the submarine cable project will benefit banks, semiconductor firms, call centers, BPOs, as well as small and medium enterprises that do business through the internet.

“With three landing stations, PLDT now operates the most number of cable landing stations among the telco operators in the country,” Jovy Hernandez, PLDT vice president and head of PLDT ALPHA Enterprise and Smart Enterprise Sales and Marketing said.

The other international landing stations are located in Batangas and La Union.

Hernandez said the three landing stations will be interconnected to enable capacity rerouting for greater resiliency in PLDT’s international network.

"We have designed a future-ready network that can potentially supply more than 15 Terabits per second capacity, initially using 40 Gbps wavelength technology, and eventually 100 Gbps wavelength capability,” George N. Lim, PLDT Network Services Assurance senior vice president said.

The start of cable laying work for ASE was marked by a ceremony in November last year at the landing station in Daet. This is PLDT's third landing station, after those in Nasugbu, Batangas for the Asia Pacific Cable Network 2 and Southeast Asia-Middle East-West Europe 3, and Bauang, La Union for Asia-America Gateway.

source: interaksyon.com

PLDT partners with US-based Ciena Corp. for P1.3B network upgrade

Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. has tapped US firm Ciena Corp. for a P1.3 billion network upgrade.

The country's biggest telecom company will deploy Ciena's coherent 100 gigabits-per-second technology and optical transport network switching solutions.

Napoleon Nazareno, PLDT president, said the network upgrade will complete PLDT's core network modernization program and support the delivery of next-generation services to customers such as fiber-to-the-home, fiber-to-the-building, LTE/4G, IPTV and triple-play services.

"This reliable infrastructure will not only benefit the customers of PLDT but also the subscribers of our cellular subsidiaries, Smart Communications and Sun Cellular," Nazareno said.

Anthony MacLachlan, Ciena vice president and general manager for Asia Pacific, said PLDT is strengthening its leadership position and differentiating its network in the highly competitive Philippines marketplace with this deployment of coherent 40G, 100G and OTN switching solutions.

OTN is a next-generation industry-standard network protocol that provides for the efficient transport of multiple types of legacy, real-time and Ethernet traffic over a converged network.

"PLDT's deployment of 100G in its domestic network puts the Philippines in a leadership position in Asia-Pacific, amongst only a handful of other countries in the region to do so thus far," McLachlan said.

The network upgrade is expected for completion by November this year. This is part of the P67-billion modernization program of the PLDT group.

source: interaksyon.com

State Senate panel backs bill to deregulate Internet phone service

Proponents say the bill would lock the state's hands-off policy into law, but critics say it would strip the PUC of its power to require phone firms to provide basic land-line service to any consumer.


SACRAMENTO — An industry-backed bill that would preempt state agencies from regulating Internet-enabled voice and data transmissions won unanimous approval from a state Senate committee in its first legislative hearing.

Amid protests from consumer advocates, the bill's author, Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima), tried to downplay the significance of the measure, which proponents said would simply lock the state's current hands-off policy into law.

Such a reiteration of existing practices would give Silicon Valley businesses "the certainty" to continue developing innovative, Internet-powered products and programs, Padilla argued at a hearing Tuesday of the Senate Energy, Utilities and Telecommunications Committee.

The bill "maintains the environment that has taken us to where we are today and ensures it will continue tomorrow," said Robert Callahan, a lobbyist for TechAmerica, a Silicon Valley telecommunications and technology trade group.

But opponents, mainly consumer advocates for the poor, elderly and minorities, countered that Padilla's bill, SB 1161, would strip the California Public Utilities Commission of its last vestige of power to require telephone companies to provide universal, basic land-line service to any consumer.

Those same rules also mandate that subsidized connections be available for qualifying low-income residents and that special equipment be given to people with hearing disabilities.

"We see this as a withering away and the elimination of PUC regulation over telecommunication," said Richard Holober, executive director of the Consumer Federation of California. "We think that would be bad public policy."

Residential land-line phone service was almost completely deregulated in 2006, but the PUC retained limited authority over service quality and availability. The door, however, was always left open for the agency to re-regulate the industry, should that be needed in the future. The proposed law would eliminate that option.

The bill is being pushed by AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc., which own networks connecting about 11 million land lines statewide, as well as major tech companies such as Cisco Systems Inc. that make communications hardware and software.

AT&T was the fifth-largest contributor to Padilla's campaign coffers with $23,900 from 2007 through 2010, according to nonpartisan political data firm Map-

Light.org. In all, Padilla received $69,644 from telecom services and equipment interests during that period.

Padilla, the committee's chairman, bristled at charges that he was in league with telecommunications, cable TV and Internet companies to jettison California's minimal remaining oversight of basic phone service.

He promised to amend his bill as it makes its way through the Legislature to "make it abundantly clear" that it does not eliminate any existing regulation of conventional phone service through land-line connections.

Padilla's pledge clearly swayed committee members who expressed skepticism about the need for the bill, which passed on an 11-0 vote.

"I don't want to vote for diminishing any existing consumer protections," such as universal service, said Sen. Christine Kehoe (D-San Diego) toward the end of more than two hours of testimony and deliberation.

But Padilla's stab at compromise didn't win any applause from the bill's strongest critics.

Voice over Internet Protocol technology is so inexpensive and ubiquitous that it is expected to replace the current copper wire lines in the near future, they said. Copper networks already depend on VOIP to complete most calls, and the technology is at the heart of all cable phone and fiber-optic and long-distance service.

"As more people use voice over Internet, fewer people will have [consumer] protections," said Mark Toney, executive director of the Utility Reform Network, a San Francisco consumer group. People who live in isolated communities with VOIP phones won't have the legal right to get subsidized, low-cost service, he said.

State policymakers should provide more, not less, oversight of the communications industry if they don't want to repeat the mistakes that they and their federal counterparts made when they deregulated the energy and the home mortgage industries, said Samuel Kang, managing attorney for the Greenlining Institute, a civil rights organization in Berkeley.

"Why are we now trying to take authority out of the hands of the PUC and outsource that accountability to Washington, D.C.?" he said.

The PUC has so far taken no public position on the Padilla bill.

source: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-phone-deregulation-20120418,0,5202760.story

Vodafone, Smart partner for $10 data-roaming offer, best practices

MANILA, Philippines — Unlike what has been wildly speculated upon online, UK-based telecommunications firm Vodafone is not setting up operations in the Philippines.

Instead, the global telco brand is linking up with dominant carrier Smart Communications Inc. to offer a low-cost data roaming rate to the latter’s globetrotting mobile subscribers.

Aside from the roaming agreement, the two telecom giants will harness the partnership to forge collaborations in the areas of social media, customer care and rollout strategies for LTE, the next-generation mobile network technology.

The partnership was hatched through Smart’s participation in the Conexus Mobile Alliance, an Asia Pacific telecom group with a combined customer base of over 320 million customers.

Vodafone in September last year signed an agreement with the alliance to expand its roaming capabilities in the region. It has been reported that the company is setting its sights toward further international expansion in 2012.

“Through our participation in the Conexus alliance, Smart customers have been first in the region to enjoy a daily data rate of only US$10 when roaming on Conexus member networks,” said Mary Alice Ramos, Smart’s international roaming business and alliances head.

According to Ramos, the Vodafone partnership will bring the same low-cost data offering to more than 30 markets in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, where the latter currently operates.

To kick off the partnership, Vodafone executives reportedly flew in on February 14 to 16 to conduct training sessions with Smart’s senior management and online customer management teams, among others.

This was also the same time when rumors that Vodafone would be setting up shop in the Philippines, sparked by the opening of various social media accounts in Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

The Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT)-owned telco said more workshops and technical trainings with executives are slated in the coming months.

“We are proud to be the preferred partner of Vodafone in the Philippines, as we work together to meet the growing demand among multinational businesses for sophisticated voice, data and roaming solutions within and beyond the Asia Pacific region,” said Smart International and Carrier Business Division Head Alex Caeg.

source: interaksyon.com