Converge ICT Builds ISP Network to Promote Philippines Digital Economy

The Philippines offers a wide variety of economically significant local specialties such as mangoes from Luzon Island, Barong Tagalog shirts; the wood carvings from the Banaue Rice Terraces; and a diversity of bags and carpets made from Manila hemp, just to name a few.

Local sales are limited if sold only to tourists; but with the advent of Internet 2.0, eCommerce has become the most-promising channel for boosting revenue for Philippine vendors. Having network bandwidth available is essential for enterprises and individuals engaged in eCommerce. To ensure vibrant development of eCommerce reliable, high speed and affordable network services is a must.

Of course, eCommerce is only one sector of the Internet 2.0 era. Many new economic patterns and business models are constantly emerging based on digital platforms such as online gaming, HD video, and social media. Other than goods like these, the Philippines has become the Call Center Capital of the world.

Thus, network development is vital to the advancement of the national digital economy of the Philippines.

Converge ICT (Converge) is a pure fiber Internet service provider. Converge is a leading player in the all-optical broadband access industry with licenses for operating fixed networks, fiber optics, cable TV, enterprise private lines, fixed broadband, and wireless broadband services. Driven by a mission to fulfill the demand for high speed network services, the company is dedicated to deploying a modern and scalable network infrastructure as its contribution to the development of a modern Digital Economy in the Philippines.

Converge has deployed an extensive Fiber Optic network covering Central Luzon, the national Capital Region and South Luzon. Its objective is to be able to provide affordable, high-quality Fiber Internet services to as large an audience as possible.

Converge’s Plan for New Services

Converge started as a cable TV operator. Its live network was a Hybrid Fiber-Coaxial network on which medium speed services were deployed and was the base for the growth of its Fiber-To-The-Home (FTTH) service. With continuous innovations, bandwidth-hungry services like 4K and 3D video began to proliferate, which in turn is driving exponential increases in the need for bandwidth.

In fulfillment of Converge’s mission to ensure that the country is empowered to cope with the ever-changing and increasingly-demanding digital times, the company has taken it upon itself to roll-out the Philippines’ first pure end-to-end fiber network. And since their initial roll-out, Converge has been able to provide its clientele the kind of connectivity that allows them to maximize the Internet.

Today, Converge is expanding its in the Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) service market in Metro Manila by providing customers with highly reliable, high-quality, and high-speed optical network services. To this end, Converge has specified a reliable and elastic network that will deliver high input-output ratios that meet contemporary data center requirements. According to Converge’s requirement, this network must also improve support for the current enterprise private line and home broadband access services, and contribute to future plans for services such as FTTH, enterprise data services, data center services, cloud services, and Smart City services throughout the country.

“Early on we felt we needed a network that was reliable, scalable, cost-effective, and allowed us to easily implement new products and services,” said Jesus Romero, Chief Operating Officer of Converge. “And we are very pleased that we were able to, in fact, get that with Huawei.”

Huawei’s Professional Network and Business Consulting Team

Huawei serves the top 50 network operators worldwide, and has built more than 1,500 networks, is a member of more than 360 standards-defining organizations, industry alliances, or open source communities. Huawei currently holds more than 300 leadership positions in organizations such as IEEE-SA, IIC, BBF, ETSI, TMF, and WFA. With Huawei’s Innovation Research Program (HIRP), the organization is conducting cooperative innovation with over 400 research institutes and 900 enterprises in more than 30 countries or regions around the world.

After years of practical experience, Huawei has built a professional network of consulting, planning, construction, and maintenance teams. Since 2006, Huawei’s global consultants have provided professional consulting services for over 120 operators in more than 70 countries or regions to help operators resolve business pain points and improve core competitiveness. With a full understanding of Converge’s current network situation and future plans, Huawei helped Converge sort out and explore potential high-value customers, develop solutions for network construction, and outline future-oriented service plans.

Agile WAN Solutions Meet Large Bandwidth and Network Evolution Requirements

Huawei proposed its Agile WAN Solution to Converge, which will use NE40E universal service routers to build a Fixed-Mobile Convergence (FMC) 2.0 network. The network will help Converge construct an intelligent, ultra-broadband, and simplified network that meets their service development and network evolution needs.

• IP + optical synergy affords one-click service deployment. The ‘IP + optical synergy’ solution applies cross-layer network resource integration and automatic cross-domain topology discovery, simplifies O&M, and achieves end-to-end service deployment in minutes.

• The 2 Tbit/s large-capacity line cards to meet large bandwidth service requirements. Built on a 2T platform, the NE40E series energy-efficient routers support smooth capacity expansion to 2 Tbit/s per slot, which allows for large-capacity service support and the ability to meet increased bandwidth requirements in the future.

• Hierarchical Quality of Service (HQoS) meets user service experience requirements. HQoS is applied in an end-to-end manner. It allows fine-grained service scheduling by differentiating users and services, and provides large buffers, low latency, and high reliability to ensure superior service quality and meet individual user service experience requirements.

• Broadband remote server access in multiple scenarios and hot-standby technology ensure non-stop services. Users can access the network in Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet (PPPoE), Internet Protocol over Ethernet (IPoE), dial-up, private line, wired, or wireless modes. Five authentication modes are supported, affording unified user access for the entire network. And hot-standby technology allows user information to be backed up between active and standby devices with rapid and covert traffic switching.

Assisting Converge to Become One of the Best FTTH Providers

From the Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) backbone and Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) core, to the MAN, and all the way down to the access network, Converge’s network is largely built by Huawei.

The renewed Converge network is more reliable and stable, and achieves lower latency, higher rates of speed, and easier O&M — all of which help Converge to launch new products and services quickly. Most importantly, the new network will help Converge to better meet customer requirements and automatically distribute services suited for market needs. The network is beneficial for eCommerce companies that sell Philippine specialties; Internet enterprises providing online live streaming and HD video services; innovative enterprises that engage in local social media or sharing platforms; and citizens — all helping to vigorously promote a robust Digital Economy in the Philippines. In partnership with Huawei, Converge has enhanced its reputation for providing FTTH services that create superior customer experiences.

“Huawei has been responsive in terms of support,” Romero said. “In terms of pricing, they remain competitive, and they help us a lot with strategy planning, what to do next, and where to go — which is one key area where we feel we should continue and expand cooperation.”

【Customer Testimony】

“Huawei has been responsive in terms of support and in terms of pricing, they remain competitive, and they help us a lot with strategy planning, what to do next, and where to go — which is one key area where we feel we should continue and expand cooperation.”

— Jesus Romero, COO, Converge