Philippine Telegraph and Telephone Corp. started hiring new executives to revive its operations and become a major telecom player.
PT&T said it elected James Velasquez as a member of its board of directors effective March 1 and will be the company’s president and chief executive.
Before joining PT&T, Velasquez spent nearly three decades at IBM, where he worked in various capacities and was the president and country manager of IBM Philippines.
He was responsible for the overall IBM business operations in the country and led the company to significant growth in both domestic and global offshore services.
Velasquez, a graduate of Electronics and Communications Engineering from the University of Santo Tomas in Manila, is currently a senior executive for IBM Global Technology Services, Asia Pacific.
PT&T also elected Renato Garcia, an experienced leader in the telecommunications industry, as a member of its board of directors.
Velasquez and Garcia will replace Benjamin Bitanga and Gerardo de Leon as directors of PT&T, and will help guide the company to improving the Philippines’ telecommunications industry.
PT&T said Velasquez and Garcia’s election would be vital to the business strategy and future plans of the company which aimed to become the third major telecom player in the Philippines.
“We believe PT&T is in an ideal position to vie for the third telco slot given its technical expertise, solid track record and infrastructure to back it up,” Velasquez said.
Velasquez said PT&T had operated as a full service telco in the wired and wireless space for over five decades and established the first national digital backbone in the 1980. It also launched the very first broadband service in 2001 and was a pioneering leader in messaging.
The company holds a 25-year franchise, which allows the company to establish, maintain and operate both wired and wireless telecommunications systems for domestic and international communication in the Philippines.
PT&T also operates a new multi 10+ GBPS (Gigabytes per second) broadband network across National Capital Region, Cebu, Central Luzon and Calabarzon.
Its existing, scalable network and infrastructure, spanning over 1,000 kilometers of pure fiber optic cables allow it to easily meet the network demands of customers in the Greater Manila area, northern and southern Luzon and Cebu regions.
“PT&T plans on expanding its pure fiber footprint outside Metro Manila through its enterprise broadband offering as well as service the residential market within this year. Targeting both the residential and business segments is a plan we are keen on executing regardless of the third telco player outcome,” Garcia said.
PT&T’s broadband service is available in the Greater Manila Area, Northern and Southern Luzon.