The Manila Electric Company (Meralco) has committed to power the expansion of edotco Towers, Inc. (edotco) as part of its efforts to support businesses and spur development by helping improve the country’s internet connectivity.
Meralco has so far energized close to 50 of edotco’s common towers this year with 50 more planned for the rest of the year.
The power distributor will also facilitate the seamless transfer of service of approximately 700 telco assets within Meralco’s franchise area that edotco acquired from PLDT, and conduct the systematic handling of future service applications to ensure their timely energization.
In addition, Meralco will provide strategic and technical support to enhance edotco’s operational efficiency and offer value-add services such as automatic payment arrangements, enrollment to Peak/Off-Peak Program and Meralco Online, Power Quality consult, and contract right-sizing.
All these are vital in ensuring that edotco’s facilities will have stable and reliable electricity service and cost-efficient operations, which is crucial to its success.
“One of the immediate things we want to do is upgrade the service for our cellular sites. This is where we look forward to Meralco supporting this because the speed of energization enables our customers to deliver excellent internet connectivity services for the Filipinos,” said edotco Acting Country Managing Director Suraj Narayanan Kutty.
“Especially with the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become more apparent that internet is essential and strong connectivity can be made possible when powered by a stable and reliable electricity service. We are one of the working instruments that will help support the livelihood of the people,” he added.
edotco is an integrated telecommunications infrastructure services company in Asia, providing end-to-end solutions in the tower services sector from tower leasing, co-locations, build-to-suit, energy, transmission, and operations and maintenance.
Its expansion would allow all telecommunications companies to collocate in a single tower, thereby eliminating dead spots and reducing the number of cellular sites. It would also level the playing field for all telcos and networks in terms of coverage and open opportunities for other players to improve network reliability.
Meralco Vice President and Head of Corporate Partners Ma. Cecilia Domingo, for her part, said: “This partnership with edotco is a testimony to Meralco’s commitment to our customers and our nation, ensuring that we continue to deliver excellently to our customers, anchored on our purpose and mission to put customers at the core of our business.”
“Meralco is very well committed to supporting the current and future power supply needs of edotco, also ensuring that along the journey, Meralco will continue its power demand to guarantee adequate and reliable power supply, quick energization for expansion, energy maintenance, and endorsement of sustainable power solutions as we walk together into the future of energy,” she concluded.