Even until today, fiber roll-out in key cities is a bit insufficient to reach every home in the area. That’s why PLDT wants to take advantage of its broad coverage of telephone lines to deliver similar speeds.

This comes after the successful trials of two advanced hybrid fiber technologies namely “GiGa Wire” by KT Corporation (formerly Korea Telecom) and “G.fast.” by Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd.. According to PLDT, both are capable of providing data speeds per user of up to 600-700 Mbps per user, depending on the length of the local copper loop.

This setup works by connecting structures and houses with fiber optic cables and using special equipment to enable the internal copper wiring of these structures to deliver fiber-like data speeds. Since the majority of the buildings in the country are wired with copper, this will vastly cut cost instead of re-wiring each with fiber optic.

“This new initiative is part of our broad effort to make fiber-powered, high-speed connectivity more widely available to the public. It’s part and parcel of building the ‘Gigabit Society’ – where high-bandwidth, low-latency digital services in homes, businesses, healthcare services, utilities and schools become an integral part of daily life.” – PLDT Chairman and CEO Manuel V. Pangilinan.

The initial plan is to deploy these technologies to over 500 buildings nationwide. The number is to be divided among residential and office buildings. By 2018 and 2019, it will be increased to 1,600. The initiative will be a P2 billion three-year deployment. We’ll see how that will work out in the coming years.