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FIber-rich City
Dumaguete's telco infrastructure
qualifies it to ride on the growth of global outsourcing
industry
By Dominique Cimafranca
One secret that will serve Dumaguete well in its ambitions
is the telecommunications infrastructure in the city.
Unknown to many, Dumaguete actually has a robust high-capacity
network already in place. This network consists of microwave
links and a fiber-optic backbone which connect the city
not only to Manila and Cebu City, but to Mindanao and
other islands, as well.
The fiber optic links going into Dumaguete are among
the best for a city outside of Metro Manila. The total
capacity of these fiber links is a whopping 320 Gbps
which translates to 4.5 million high quality data and
voice lines – a capacity which can accommodate
five million call center agents. Bandwidth-hungry outsourcing
businesses such as call centers, transcription services,
and digital post-production will find ample room for
growth for their telecommunication needs.
Redundancy is another key feature of Dumaguete’s
telco infrastructure. Dumaguete is a landing site for
the fiber optic backbone networks of Globe Telecommunications,
as well as Telecphil – the national consortium
of telco providers. In addition, microwave communications
supplement the links, assuring that service businesses
need not fear outages caused by a downed cable.
Investment promotion is going full-speed ahead for
Dumaguete with the coordinated efforts of local government,
national agencies, and non-government organizations.
Already boasting of topnotch graduates, the city is
well positioned for growth in the booming international
services outsourcing industry.
Dominique Cimafranca is a Business Specialist at IBM
Philippines and is a founding Trustee of TVB Group Inc.,
dedicated to promoting Dumaguete as a University Town. |
The Negros Oriental State University
officially became a university only in July this year, but
traces its history back to 1907, when the first trade classes
were held at what was then the Provincial High School. For
a long time, it was mainly a trade school before becoming
a polytechnic college. Now, it can boast of strengths in agriculture,
mechanical engineering, architecture, the arts, and education.
Cultivating IT
Last year, Dumaguete leveraged its status as
a University Town and positioned itself as a spoke of the
IT hub that is Cebu. The skills and qualifications obtained
by graduates of Dumaguete colleges and universities have been
attracting IT-enabled businesses in the city. According to
City Mayor Agustin Perdices, "Dumaguete is blessed to
have superior human resources, a high quality of life, and
world-class telecommunications facilities. We are uniquely
positioned to service the needs of the emerging IT industries."
Dumaguete wants to develop a portfolio of investments
that are indicative of the high quality of graduates that
it produces. Its graduates excel not only in verbal English
communication skills, but also in other areas that business
process outsourcing (BPO) companies are looking for such as
excellent written English skills, proficiency in the arts,
and information technology. The topnotch nursing and accounting
programs in Dumaguete are validated annually by high passing
rates in board exams.
The aggressive and sustained approach in branding
the province to appeal to the IT industry and the rest of
the country has resulted in several large and leading BPO
companies visiting Dumaguete City. Among these are SPI Technologies,
PeopleSupport, IBM, Epixtar, Client Logic, Sykes, and Convergys.
The approach would not have been effective
if not for the three-way cooperation among business, government,
and the academe. While business and government were act ing
as cheerleaders and trumpeting the virtues of having this
University Town and the quadruple redundancy fiber-optic connectivity,
the colleges and universities have been quick to adapt to
the needs of industry. The schools are very proactive in learning
what IT companies need in terms of human resource requirements
and are more than willing to accommodate their academic and
training needs.
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