TransCo revives plan to tap broadband option
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
By Alena Mae S. Flores
National Transmission Corp. has revived plans to invite partners for the use of its transmission highway for broadband technology, a government official said yesterday.
Rep. Simeon Kintanar, chairman of the House committee on information and communications technology, told reporters during the 1st International VoIP (voice over Internet protocol) Conference that TransCo president Alan Ortiz informed him of the plan.
“They will be ready to use their transmission line throughout the country as the main transmission line for broadband. They can tie up with an existing telco [telecommunications firms]. The telco could expand their reach using the transmission line,” Kintanar said.
He said there was no legal impediment to TransCo’s plan as government policies allowed the company to team up with a telecom firm for such purpose.
It is unclear, however, if the fiber optic network would be part of Transco’s assets up for privatization.
TranCo’s infrastructure is in place and the company is trying to find a new use for it. If the infrastructure was viable, buyers would be more interested to raise their prices, Kintanar said.
TransCo announced plans to lease out its fiber optic network last year to franchised telecommunications companies as part of revenue generating options.
“That’s a good [source] of income, very lucrative for the government. We can create subsidiaries and the fiber optic network is one of the subsidiaries we want to create,” Ortiz said.
Transco offers its fiber optic network as an alternative infrastructure to the telecom industry players. Transco will supply a more advanced fiber optic technology and a network that spans the entire length of the transmission lines.
Instead of building or expanding their own fiber optic network, telcos can now take advantage of the readily available fiber optic technology and the established network that Transco is offering.
Ortiz said there were some telcos which expressed interest in leasing some of the fiber optic facilities of Transco.
posted by philpower @ 9:15 AM,
