Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT), the Philippines’ biggest telecommunications company, said recently that it has finished a P1 billion data network service expansion initiative that would help the continued growth of the country’s business process outsourcing (BPO) industry.

PLDT announced that it tapped Cisco to upgrade its core network, to make it more secure, resilient, and future-proof. The telco also worked in partnership with foreign network systems specialist Ciena to upgrade its international network.

In a press statement, PLDT executive vice president and head of Enterprise, International and Carrier Business Group Ernesto Alberto said that the expansion program will ensure that their core system can “support new generation enterprises that are largely driven by a combination of video, social networking and advanced collaborative applications.”

Alberto also said that banks and BPO companies would gain the most from the data network service upgrade because these sectors rely on international connectivity.

“We would like to think that we in the telco industry have played a significant role in ensuring that the attractiveness of the Philippines as a destination is sustainable,” he added.

PLDT first vice president and head of PLDT ALPHA Enterprise Jovy Hernandez said that the telco’s IP backbone was designed using the most up-to-date “intelligent networking technologies to bring scalable, stable, redundant, and resilient network services.”

The IT-BPO industry is targeting $25 billion in revenues by 2016 according to industry association IBPAP (Information Technology and Business Process Association of the Philippines). In 2012, the sector posted $13.2 billion in revenues. (30)