Beneco to provide internet to Baguio City by yearend

By Pamela Mariz Geminiano

BAGUIO CITY -- The Benguet Electric Coop. (Beneco) will provide a high-speed internet connection to around 35,000 households in Baguio by the end of 2019, an official said on Thursday.

                Eric de Guzman, Consumer Welfare officer of Beneco, said they are targeting to install the backbone lines in all the 128 barangays (villages) of the city by yearend.

This will allow residents to be connected to a minimum of 25Mbps (megabits per second) up to a maximum of 100Mbps speed of internet connection provided by Converge ICT.

In 2018, Beneco and Converge signed a memorandum of agreement to provide internet service to the franchise area — Baguio and Benguet — in line with the Duterte administration's thrust of providing fast internet service even in far-flung areas.

Beneco is the sole electric distributor in Baguio and Benguet and maintains its mark of high quality and efficient service to its more than 100,000 consumer-members. Its franchise area covers Baguio and the 13 Benguet towns.

De Guzman said the backbone or mainline installation is continuing with service already available to residents along Marcos Highway all the way to Baguio General Hospital area including Camp 7, Loakan Road, Scout Barrio, Dagsian, Camp 8, DPS compound, South Drive going to Pacdal, Mines View, Teachers Camp, Holy Ghost area and in the Central Business District.

Currently, there are 8,000 available connections in the city of Baguio, he said.

"The partnership between Benceco and Converge ICT will be beneficial for the people of Baguio as they can finally enjoy the pure end-to-end fiber internet that Converge ICT is known for," he said.

As of June 5, a total of 407 applications have been approved and activated. There is an average of 30 applications received daily which are approved in two weeks time and connected if the area is already “active."

As provided by the agreement, Beneco will maintain the service line while Converge ICT will maintain the backbone lines.

Beneco also will assure the reliability of the secondary lines that connect to the electric posts that will distribute the internet connection to the households.

De Guzman pointed out that to maintain the reliability of the connection in the individual internet consumers, each line from the backbone will only be used by eight consumers.

He said to date, Converge provides internet connection in some parts of Metro Manila, Bulacan, Tarlac, Pangasinan, and Baguio. -- PNA