PLDT, Smart service goes down in Visayas, Mindanao

DAVAO CITY, Philippines - Telephone service was disrupted in many parts of the Visayas and Mindanao Thursday, affecting businesses that rely on Internet connections. Affected were fixed line and data services of dominant carrier Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) and its mobile unit Smart Communications. In a statement, PLDT said they traced the disruption to cable breaks in its digital fiber optic network serving the two big areas. "We have diverted voice and data traffic via an alternate route," the company said, adding that repair teams had been deployed immediately. Repairs, PLDT said, were finished Thursday morning. Thursday’s service interruption was the first major problem encountered by PLDT subscribers since the company started operating here in 2002. An Internet café operator said most of them closed early because of the problem. A PLDT official declined to identify the area where the problem occurred, saying it was confidential. Other major Internet providers here are Sky/BayanTel and Globe. The few Internet cafés that had full capacity on Wednesday were hooked to Bayantel’s servers. - Carmelito Q. Francisco, BusinessWorld