InterAksyon.com means BUSINESS
MANILA - Meralco's venture into broadband over power lines will be delayed, after the utility ditched talks with a German supplier that earlier promised to help launch the service.
"We are now back to zero. We are scouting for another technology, another partner. We haven’t found one yet. There’s no development. We will see if we can pursue it this year,” said Alfredo Panlilio, vice president for customer retail services at Manila Electric Co.
“When we talked to this person from Germany it turns out that he is only a consultant. We want to deal directly with an expert,” Panlilio said.
Discussions with the German supplier began last January, but "when we started discussing with that person, he's not the one we are looking for. He sent an email that would like to do pilot test for us using its technology. We gave it a shot," the Meralco executive said.
The Philippines' biggest electricity distributor had said it would venture into broadband over power lines or BOPL to sustain growth. The much-touted service offering was one of the stated reasons for a scramble to corner a majority stake in Meralco that its original owenrs, the Lopezes, had given up.
Since 2009, Meralco has undertaken a pilot test of the technology in Malabon. The tests should have lasted for only three months.
“At that time, there were interference problems that caused the delay in the commercial launch. The vendor that helped us then was an American company and it told us that the technology it uses is also being deployed in Russia. But we were not pleased with the results. The service level was not good. The speed was so slow which is probably why the bandwidth can’t take the interference,” Panlilio said.
InterAksyon.com means BUSINESS
BUSINESS NEWS
