Despite the economic slowdown, Eastern Communications Inc. announced on Tuesday it will increase its current workforce to meet expansion plans for this year.

In a statement, the company said it will increase its staff by 12 percent this year to meet the revenue target of P5 billion.

“Eastern’s expansion program is essential if it is to achieve its revenue target of P5 billion. While the company will be conservative in its spending in the present, given the global economic slowdown, we will not sacrifice the quality of the future,” Edwin Domingo, marketing and business development head of Eastern Communications, said.

He said that the workers they will hire would be those with backgrounds in sales, information technology (IT) and electrical communications engineering and ascertained bias toward customer satisfaction and service excellence.

The expansion is expected to support the company’s 14 new products and 16,000 new lines, Domingo said.

Besides the traditional bandwidth and connectivity solutions, the company’s new products include wireless access, services for high-end Internet cafés, a new data center, business applications and special packages for small and medium enterprises and corporations.
Eastern earlier said that it is eyeing locators in economic zones and industrial parks in the southern part of Luzon near its local cable landing station as potential customers.

The Ongpin family-owned firm said it is laying down a 240-kilometer fiber network to service industrial parks and economic zones in Tagaytay, Cavite, Laguna and Batangas.

The backhaul project is a strategic initiative to help Eastern realize its long-term revenue goal of P5 billion for the next five years, the company said. The backhaul infrastructure and support costs P1 billion. The company’s expansion will serve multinational corporations and business process outsourcing firms, which are relocating to various economic zones and industrial parks located in those areas. Eastern said the expansion would also reach Nasugbu, Batangas, enabling it to connect to its submarine cables thereby providing greater global connectivity. The company started operating in 1878 as a firm that offered telex and telegram services. It has since evolved into a full-service provider of world-class communications services, including data and Internet, leased circuits, regular landlines, and broadband.
-- Darwin G. Amojelar

Source : Manila Times, Business, p. B2