MANILA, Philippines, October 25, 2013 – Leading telecoms provider PLDT, through its corporate enterprise arm PLDT ALPHA Enterprise, has recently partnered with the University of Santo Tomas (UST) in boosting the university’s current connectivity and increasing ICT requirements, including future campus expansion.

In line with UST’s IT Department, the Santo Tomas e-Service Providers (STePs) in expanding its internal network connectivity facilities, the quadricentennial university tapped PLDT to provide an initial 100Mbps of its premium i-Gate connectivity that will help facilitate bandwidth-heavy projects and strengthen connections within and outside the UST community.

“The main purpose of the current subscription is for the educational use of the Thomasian community, alumni, guests, and other partner institutions,” said Engr. Sebastian Raymond A. Mendoza, STEPs Director during the MOU ceremony held early this year together with the University’s Finance Department and the PLDT Executives.

He also added that “communications through the internet using our online resources, like the institution and department websites, will serve as an effective and faster way of information dissemination.”

Other external projects that will benefit from the connectivity enhancements of the university include the online encoding of grades, full implementation of online registration and enrolment, extended webhosting, server co-location services, and many more.  Future campus expansion requirements are also considered in the technical ICT development project.

With UST being the biggest university in terms of student population in a single campus, its IT facilities have been congruent with local and global standards in partnership with the leading IT providers and services.

Asia’s oldest university is also the first to implement a 10G campus backbone cabling and a Cisco model infrastructure from Core to Access. Its facilities have received ISO 9001:2008 TUV-SUD certification which have been constantly upgraded to cater to the connectivity needs of the campus which has the biggest bandwidth requirement among local universities.

“We consider many factors in choosing the right Internet service providers that should meet the standards required by the university. Reliable support is the primary reason in considering an industry partner, as support should always be felt and delivered on a timely basis,” said Mendoza.

UST’s IT facilities will benefit from PLDT’s extensive fiber optic network which spans more than 71,000-kilometers nationwide, the most expansive network mesh among local providers.

“PLDT has constantly invested in our network to assure our customers of the service and reliability that their organizations need. Our facilities always undergo the necessary upgrades to meet global standards and handle the growing demand for dependable and consistent connectivity,” said PLDT FVP and Head of ALPHA Enterprise Jovy Hernandez.

“We are ready to serve UST with whatever ICT needs that they’d need to benefit the students, faculty members, the administration, and the whole Thomasian community in keeping their global-standards of education.”

Future enhancements of communications systems are also in the university’s agenda, with PLDT undertaking these projects to endure improved service delivery for the university.