Globe Seeks to Step Up DPWH Collaboration to Minimize Fiber Cut Incidents

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Globe Telecom is seeking to further strengthen its collaboration with the Department of Public Works and Highways in a bid to minimize, if not totally avoid, fiber cut incidents that often lead to disruption of telecommunication services.

Earlier this year, the DPWH issued a memorandum directing its field personnel and contractors “to observe extreme caution in the execution of their construction works” to help ensure uninterrupted services of utility companies including those of telecommunication providers. The department specifically directed its field personnel and contractors to provide maps highlighting ongoing projects within a given locality and provide the data to utility companies “to avoid accidental cutting and damaging of their lines and facilities that may cause power and communication breakdown.”

In addition to this, however, Globe is asking DPWH, through separate letters to DPWH regional contractors, to make erring contractors accountable and penalized for cable cut incidents. To discuss its proposal, Globe is seeing to have an audience with regional directors concerned “in the hope of forging lasting partnership with the DPWH,” said Globe Operations Admin Support Director Raul Taroy.

“The growing incidence of fiber cuts is getting to be a major concern for us and we would like to appeal to DPWH and their contractors to take caution in undertaking road construction activities in order to avoid unnecessary cable cuts. We also believe that penalizing DPWH contractors for such incidents would compel these contractors to be extra cautious in the execution of their projects and thus avoid recurrence of accidental cuts and damage to our cable facilities,” Globe General Counsel Atty. Froilan Castelo said.

According to Castelo, network disruptions caused by fiber cut incidents adversely impact not only the company’s operations but could also potentially affect delivery of government services including emergency response, pointing out that Globe provides access to both 911 and 8888, the government’s emergency and complaint hotline, respectively, as well as inbound and outbound SMS accessibility for 2286 (Bato), a text hotline for the public to directly report incidents to the Philippine National Police.

Castelo revealed that since the start of the year alone, the telecommunications provider already experienced a total of 117 cable cuts attributed to road-construction related activities undertaken by DPWH contractors. According to him, some of these cable incidents have led to major network disruption that affected call, text and internet services of Globe. Even barring major network disruptions, cable cut incidents cause at the very least poor quality of service delivery to consumers, not to mention, additional repair costs to the company, he said.

The company’s bid for a closer coordination with DPWH is also in line with efforts to strengthen its business continuity program. “By working closely with the DPWH, we hope to address a major concern in ensuring delivery of our major services at all times,” he added. Globe Telecom is the first telecommunications provider in the Philippines to secure an enterprise-wide business continuity ISO certification. The certification attests to the company's readiness in ensuring delivery of critical telecommunications services to its customers even during disasters.