Meralco to power edotco expansion

MANILA Electric Co. (Meralco) will energize the expansion of edotco Towers, Inc. to support businesses by helping improve internet connectivity in the Philippines.

“One of the immediate things we want to do is upgrade the service for our cellular sites. This is where we look forward to Meralco supporting this because the speed of energization enables our customers to deliver excellent internet connectivity services for the Filipinos,” Suraj Narayanan Kutty, acting country managing director of edotco, said in a press release on Tuesday.

Meralco said that it had energized almost 50 edotco common towers this year, with 50 more expected to be fully energized by yearend.

The listed power distributor also said that it would facilitate the seamless transfer of service of approximately 700 telco assets within Meralco’s franchise area that edotco acquired from PLDT, Inc.

Meralco will also conduct the systematic handling of future service applications to ensure its timely energization.

“Meralco will provide strategic and technical support to enhance edotco’s operational efficiency and offer value-add services,” the company said, citing these as automatic payment arrangements, enrollment to the peak/off-peak program, online and power quality services, and contract right-sizing.

edotco is an integrated telecommunications infrastructure services company in Asia. It provides end-to-end solutions in the tower services sector such as tower leasing, co-locations, build-to-suit, energy, transmission, and operations and maintenance.

Meralco’s controlling stakeholder, Beacon Electric Asset Holdings, Inc., is partly owned by PLDT, Inc.

Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., has an interest in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls.

On Tuesday, shares in Meralco closed lower by 0.31% or P1 to P317 apiece. — Ashley Erika O. Jose