PLDT calls halt to NGN migration plan

The Philippines’ largest telecoms company Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT) has announced it is suspending its planned migration to a next generation network (NGN) following a recommendation from its European consultant, BT Group. According to press reports in The Manila Times, the Filipino group’s chairman Manuel V Pangilinan told journalists that the UK-based group had advised it to slow down its phased migration to NGN from its legacy platform. Pangilinan said his company was looking to complete the task in three to four years, compared with five years for BT’s own NGN deployment in the UK. Napoleon Nazareno, PLDT’s president, says the company is committed to rolling out its NGN service mostly in urban areas, adding that the operator expects to sign up a large number of business subscribers. In 2008 PLDT is investing PHP4.9 billion (USD118.8 million) in its NGN, out of its PHP24.8 billion CAPEX budget.