RP to experience full IP in next five years

CEBU, Philippines - The Philippines will be able to fully take advantage of the IP (Internet Protocol) technology in the next four to five years, until telecommunication carriers will be able to complete transporting infrastructure from analog and digital to IP.

Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) spokesperson Ramon Isberto said that while some telecom providers, like PLDT are starting to convert their infrastructure to full IP, it will take time for Internet users to fully maximize the full experience of IP.

IP Telephony or Internet Protocol Telephony is the transmission of voice signals over the Internet, wide area network (WAN), or local area network (LAN). IP Telephony uses voice-over-IP to break down voice transmissions into packets of data and transmitting them across a network.

Going into full IP technology, is one of the topics discussed during the recently concluded four-day 5th Asian Carrier’s Conference (ACC) held at the Shangri-La’s Mactan Resort and Spa, with theme “Pushing the Boundaries for Wholesale Carriers: Finding Silver Lining in the IP Cloud.”

Once telecommunication infrastructure in the Philippines, will be able to be IP compatible, Internet users will be expecting exciting new data services, such as live video streaming, among others, which are not offered by the traditional telecom infrastructure.

Going into full IP capability is part of the PLDT’s multi-billion-peso capital expenditure to convert old system to New Generation Network (NGN).

“Partially, PLDT is already IP capable, we still have to do a lot of changes in the switches, core network and terminals, before declaring already full IP,” said Isberto during the sidelines of the ACC.

Before the introduction of full IP capability on providing Internet service, Isberto said carriers, such as PLDT still has to make some and major changes, in the prices, and packages being offered, as IP technology offers wide array of products and services, that will give total Internet experience for subscribers.

According to Isberto there are a lot of new services that can be offered once a carrier will use IP channel into Internet infrastructure, part of which is the offering of real-time cable channel over the Internet that is now being introduced by PLDT through the new “Watch Pad” feature on PLDT myDSL.

Also, IP technology allows carriers to offer several products and services that non-traditional like tele-medicine services, among others.

At this time, since going into full IP is still new, Isberto said there are still a lot of technical issues that need to be looked into, players still has to familiarized some of the technological changes, bugs and glitches still are to be expecting in the early introduction of full IP.— Ehda M. Dagooc