Leading integrated telco network PLDT Inc. (PLDT) and its wireless subsidiary Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart) have once again secured international certifications for their resilient network facilities, boosting the Group’s capability to deliver services amid disruption.
These certifications reinforce PLDT and Smart’s Business Continuity (BC) program, which covers disaster preparedness and response, risk and impact mitigation and service recovery and restoration plans.
PLDT and Smart received a total of 22 Certifications for Business Continuity Management System (ISO 22301:2019). The certification focuses on critical network facilities across the country, including cable landing stations and network operations centers, ensuring that the Group’s facilities that support voice, data, and converged multimedia services connectivity are compliant to international standards for business continuity preparedness. These underscore the Group’s capability to minimize the impact of crises and disasters, and immediately recover critical business functions within acceptable time frames at a predefined capacity during a disruptive incident.
“The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) – based process methodology fosters continuous improvement while ensuring compliance and conformity to internationally accepted standards,” said Atty Oliver Carlos G. Odulio, Head of PLDT and Smart’s Enterprise Business Continuity and Resilience Office.
“It likewise establishes organizational resilience that is grounded on the protection of critical business functions which gives equal importance to its people, stakeholder value, corporate competitiveness, and corporate social responsibility,” he added.
With internationally certified world-class facilities, PLDT and Smart are also better positioned to serve enterprises and international clients, including hyperscaler companies, boosting the country’s ambition to become the hyperscaler hub of the region.
PLDT operates the country’s most extensive fiber infrastructure, which was at 1.09 million kilometers as of end-September 2022, including both domestic and international fiber. This fiber infrastructure also supports Smart’s mobile network, which covers about 97% of the population with 3G, 4G/LTE and 5G.
This is aligned with the PLDT Group’s endeavors to anchor initiatives on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDG), particularly SDG No. 9 – Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure.