TELCO’s inquired about measures to improve services

October 3, 2021 Metro BLISTT

BAGUIO CITY – The Baguio City Council has requested the internet service providers (ISPs) operating in the city to submit their comprehensive reports regarding their accomplished, ongoing, and future infrastructure projects, innovations, and systems that are aimed at improving their internet services.
Councilor Michael Lawana said the city council may use these reports to craft legislation to provide whatever assistance the telcos may need in providing the residents better internet experience.
Lawana said these interventions will benefit the residents who are now heavily reliant on the internet due to the adoption of alternative working arrangements and distance learning in light of the community quarantine.
The requested reports, according to Lawana, will also be submitted to the City Mayor’s office (CMO), City Planning and Development Office (CPDO) and City Engineering Office (CEO) for evaluation as to whether the telcos’ projects are in harmony with the city’s overall development plans.
The council earlier invited Philippine Long-Distance Telephone (PLDT) Company, Globe Telecom Inc., and Converge ICT Solution to update the legislative body on the various preparations they are undertaking for the opening of classes for School Year 2021-2022. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced schools in the country and in other places around the world to postpone face-to-face classes and to adopt alternative learning arrangements such as modular learning and online learning, consequently increasing the demand for internet access.
For School Year 2021-2022, the country will continue to implement blended learning. The Department of Education (DepEd) earlier announced that face-to-face classes remain prohibited for basic education. Some colleges and universities, however, have been approved to re-open for limited face-to-face classes.
The city council expressed concern on the ability of the ISPs to meet the increasing demand for broadband internet as well as their ability to respond immediately to outages and other technical concerns experienced by internet users in the city.
Representatives of the three telcos assured the council that they have exponentially improved their services to meet the “new normal” demands and address prevailing concerns experienced by their subscribers.
The representative of Converge ICT informed the council that the company had already completed the North Luzon Fiber Optic Loop which provides redundancy in its fiber network within northern Luzon. A network is deemed redundant when there are multiple cable routes to provide service to the users, ensuring network availability in case there is a fiber cut or other forms of interruption in one part of the network.
As for PLDT and Globe, the two telcos told the council that their regrooming of cable wires and migration of copper cables to fiber are nearing completion.
(JGH/ABN)