day 3

We visited PLDT Innovation and Training Center. We learned the history of PLDT. Founded on November 28, 1928, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) is the leading telecommunications provider in the Philippines. Through its three principal business groups - fixed line, wireless, and information and communication technology - PLDT offers the largest and most diversified range of telecommunications services across the Philippines’ most extensive fiber optic backbone and fixed line, cellular and satellite networks.

PLDT is listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE: TEL) and its American Depositary Shares are listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE:PHI). PLDT has one of the largest market capitalizations among Philippine-listed companies.

            Then in the afternoon we went to Telecoms Training Institute, Valenzuela. They showed us their radio facilities and the significance of it in the Telecommunications.

The Telecommunications Office

The BUTEL started its operations with 169 telegraph offices, 39 radio stations, and 3,377 kilometers of landlines. This was a result of the extensive reconstruction efforts on the facilities destroyed during the war. Supplementing the telegraph service, the BUTEL also established in 1947 the Government Telephone System (GTS) as temporary relief to acute shortages of telephone facilities in government offices. At the start, the system had only 40 connections operated with the use of a common battery switchboard which serviced the different offices located within the Bureau of Post building in Manila. In response to popular demand, the GTS later on expanded its coverage to serve other agencies, both government and private, including individual subscribers. In addition to its nationwide telegraph service, the Bureau also operated an inter-provincial telephone network (IPTS) which served 84 cities and municipalities in different parts of the country. On August 9, 1968, the BUTEL inaugurated its Manila-Baguio telex line, the first commercial telex line to operate in the country. On May 30, 1969, the Manila-Cebu microwave-tropospheric scatter link was inaugurated, the first tropospheric scatter network to be commercially operated in the Philippines.