MANILA, Philippines — Telecom provider Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) is expanding its ultra-fast home Internet service to other posh villages in Metro Manila, the company announced Tuesday.
Under the PLDT Fibr brand offering, the telco’s fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) Internet service enables download speeds of up to 100Mbps, or about a hundred times faster than the average download rates in the Philippines.
Initially available in upscale villages such as Ayala Alabang and Forbes Park, PLDT said it is expanding the service to cater to the following areas: East, West, North, and Northeast Green Hills, Acropolis, Green Meadows, La Vista, and Valle Verde in Quezon City; Alabang Hills, Alabang 400, and Hillsborough in Alabang, Muntinlupa; and Dasmariñas Village, San Lorenzo Village, and Urdaneta Village in Makati.
An 8Mbps plan from the service costs P3,500 per month, while a 15Mbps plan is available for P6,500 a month. A 100Mbps plan is also available for P20,000 a month.
Unlike cable Internet, which shares bandwidth among nearby customers, PLDT Head of Home Business Ariel Fermin said PLDT Fibr provides a “dedicated broadband connection” to every subscriber through its use of fiber-optic cables.
Fiber Internet uses fiber optic technology, which transmits data via light signals sent through hair-thin strands of pure glass. Instead of the usual copper going to the homes of customers, thin fiber optic cables will be used.
“All PLDT Fibr plans are equipped with an Optical Network Unit (ONU) Modem, which has a fiber optic cable connection that delivers its enviable ultra-high speed feature,” Fermin added.
The new platform will be able to deliver simultaneously voice, video and data services at much higher speeds and larger capacities than DSL or cable technologies, PLDT added.
The expansion of the service comes as the telco nears completion of the installation of 50,000 kilometers of fiber optic cable nationwide, part of its P67-billion network modernization program.
Just recently, the telco announced the completion of the $400 million Asia Submarine-Cable Express, touted as the largest-capacity international submarine cable system in the country, which links Japan, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore through a fiber optic cable.
The completion of the undersea cable system brings the telco’s local landing stations to three, enabling it to efficiently deliver bandwidth-heavy applications requiring Internet access the likes of VoIP, IP-based data, and other multimedia content.
source: interaksyon.com
