Converge ICT Solutions Inc. said Wednesday it is on track to meet its goal of serving 55 percent of the population by 2025 with high-speed broadband as its fiber network reaches 55,000 kilometers as of end-2020.
“We have been accelerating the expansion of our fiber optic network because we wanted to reach the underserved and unserved areas in the country which are longing for fiber-fast internet service,” said Converge chief executive Dennis Anthony Uy.
“The community quarantine regulations due to the COVID-19 pandemic that made people rely more on their internet service for work and study at home have only made our mission to deliver fiber-fast broadband to a greater number of Filipinos more urgent,” he said.
Converge said it added more than 28,300 kilometers of fiber optic cables last year, expanding its fiber network by 107 percent from about 26,600 kilometers laid down at the end of 2019.
Converge said it is the only fixed broadband provider in the country that utilizes end-to-end pure-play fiber optic technology from the national backbone to distribution network. Fiber optic internet is said to be the future of broadband as it can provide the fastest speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second.
With this fiber infrastructure, Converge has made available nearly 2.7 million FTTH ports for broadband customers nationwide.
Converge said that as of end-December, its residential subscribers reached more than one million, or nearly double from 529,000 in 2019.
“We are well on track to meeting our goal of reaching over 15 million or 55 percent of Philippine households by 2025 and ready to serve the high-speed broadband requirements of the majority of our people,” Uy said.
Converge recorded 6.1 million homes passed, accounting for 25 percent of total households in the country as of end-2019.
Converge said it is implementing twin strategies—Go Deep and Go National—for network expansion. With its “Go Deep” strategy, Converge aims to penetrate unserved and underserved areas within its existing customer base.
For the “Go National” strategy, the company plans to complete within the year the expansion of its network coverage nationwide by connecting Luzon with Visayas and Mindanao through a primary domestic fiber backbone.
